The Problem with Closed Travel Technologies

Here is an excerpt from a Wikipedia entry about Sabre Holdings which clearly illustrates the inherent problems with a closed distribution system such as the GDSs. The original is available on Wikipedia. In 1981 a study[1] by American Airlines found that travel agents selected the flight appearing on the first line more than half the time. 92 percent of the time, the selected flight was on the first screen. This provided a huge incentive for American to manipulate their ranking formula, or even corrupt the search algorithm outright, to favor American flights. American eventually did just that... Read more »

The Triumverate of Travel

As a research exercise for our sales and business development team, I asked the questions: 1. What are the currently available GDS companies? 2. Where did they come from? 3. What websites do they own? The resulting answers, for many us who are familiar to the travel industry, are not altogether surprising. To a general consumer or to someone who is new to the sector, however, the results of the research are probably quite startling. Here is what we discovered. There are five GDS companies, they are: Worldspan - Formed in 1990 by Delta Airlines, NWA, and TWA. Now owned by Cendant (Travelport). Sabre... Read more »

The T-List

T-List, where have you been all my life. Okay, maybe for the last two years. What an excellent idea, a list of popular travel and tourism blogs. For the most part, I am interested in the travel and tourism technology side of the discussion, but all of these blogs are worthwhile and provide active and lively discussion on the topics. Here is the current list that I discovered on RadarOn. Hotel Blogs Les Explorers Chrispitality Media Blog A Luxury Travel Blog Travel Rants Travolution Blog BootBlog Erin Julian My Travel Backpack Happy Hotelier The Travel PR Blog Radar On Blog on Travel Travel... Read more »

PhoCusWright Long Tail Predictions

PhoCusWright, the travel industry research authority released their five predictions about the future of the long tail in travel. The article is excellent and is a clear acknowledgment that technologies such as online booking systems and tour operator software specifically designed for sme tour operators are where the industry is going. Bob Offutt states: “There are low cost and shareware packages that provide the capability for a small travel supplier to accept and confirm reservations online. With the low cost of hardware, it only takes a small investment to put a simple reservation... Read more »

The Long Tail of Travel

As a technologist with a focus on tourism and travel technologies I have had the opportunity to work with SME tour operators for some time. For most savvy operators, the opportunity to use new technologies to increase their exposure and bookings is ever present. For some, however, the perceived reality of implementing such a solution is simply too remote, too expensive, and too complex. In actuality there is an ever growing list of systems that can be used for this purpose. There is a huge opportunity to move these disparate providers onto the Internet. The challenge is that many of them are... Read more »

Overcoming the Three Big Tour Operator Challenges

For a long time now, prospective travelers have had the ability to search, find and make their basic flight and hotel reservations on-line. Only recently has it been possible for these same travelers to book their destination products, such as sightseeing tours and attraction tickets on line as well. Despite this trend, however, there is still no primary distribution system; which means that most travelers have to visit many different individual websites in order to purchase their destination products. For a tour operator, one of the most important goals is to sell seats. The challenge is how... Read more »

Comparing Web Booking Engines

It seems that the Internet is full of applications that allow tour operators, independent hotel and motel owners and packaged vacation providers with online booking capabilities. Many of these booking engines are extremely expensive and many are not. Some are hosted and some are stand-a-lone. So how do you choose one that is right for your organization? Here are some important things to keep in mind as you begin your research and compare the products. 1. Compare apples to apples Many booking engines are actually booking portals. This is especially true if you are an Adventure Travel company or... Read more »

Travel/Tourism & Web 2.0

I finally found a site that mentions both travel and web 2.0 in the same article: “In the world of travel, disparate data from direct sources, travel agents and intermediaries made it nearly impossible to find the best price or options for an itinerary. Sites like Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz transformed that forever (and sites like Kayak are creating even more efficiency).” Found on http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/zeitgeist Although I understand the context of the statement, the writer, Rand Fishkin, misses one important point when it is applied to these sites. In all... Read more »