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EyeforTravel Special Report: Industry sees space for GDS
Global distribution giants are here to stay despite pressure from airlines and the increased use of the internet.
Contrary to the customary debate from GDSs on their own future, online professionals and traditional players voiced their views on Worldspan, Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre’s fate.
Expedia and hotels.com vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa David Roche said: “We see GDSs as here for quite some time yet. There is going to be a redistribution of economics because of the pressures but they will be here.”
And Google head of travel for Europe Esteban Walther agreed: “They have a very clear strategy of ingraining themselves in suppliers’ back-end systems. If that continues there is massive value to add to clients and end consumers.”
Speaking during the corporate travel session Hogg Robinson’s newly appointed group industry affairs director Mike Platt said airlines and the GDS had to resolve their differences.
“In the past things were simple. Suppliers gave information to the GDS. The current model has more complexity and it is quite plausible the future model will have even more but look at how many pipes are now hitting the travel management company. We are going to have to connect up to everybody to be able to sell everything.”
Platt added that changing the model between airlines and GDS without there being ‘a big loser’ was very difficult but that there would continue to be a problem with content until the two were reconciled.
“I don’t want to be a multi-pipe business. The GDS need to clear their minds of the past.”
GDS representatives confirmed they were working through the issues and Cendant’s TDS chief operating officer Chris Vukelich said: “Somewhere along the line we lost our sanity. Somehow the debate has turned into direct distribution and that direct is free. It is not free and GDS deliver a higher yield which is not easily replicated in a direct distribution environment.”
By Linda Fox
Linda Fox
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