The Guild of Travel Management Companies has slammed a decision by the European Parliament to consider amending a ruling forbidding the identification of TMCs in any GDS marketing data sold to third parties.
Under the current rules, when GDSs sell marketing information to airlines, they not allowed to identify the TMCs that are the subject of the data.
This is thanks to a commercially sensitive information clause that was included after comprehensive lobbying last year by the GTMC and its partners, The Guild of European Business Travel Agents (GEBTA) and The European Travel Agents & Tour Operators Association (ECTAA).
But now the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Tourism is to discuss the proposed regulation and decide whether to amend the clause.
“This is a very worrying development,” said GTMC chief executive Philip Carlisle.
“A decision to overturn this privacy clause could lead to an influencing of TMCs sales strategies by airlines, distort competition for the distribution of air tickets and damage the sector by freezing competition in air transport.â€
By Bev Fearis
