The TravelMole Interview: Rob Wortham, RWA

Firms that do not own their own content – such as telecoms companies and the GDSs – will “end up dead in the water” in the not too distant future according to Rob Wortham, director of travel industry software consultancy and development firm RWA.

According to Mr Wortham the travel industry can be divided into those companies which have some sort of content – such as flights, accommodation or access to special rates – and those that “merely distribute.” He believes this second group is having an “increasingly hard time” because the rise of the internet is making them irrelevant.

Mr Wortham told TravelMole that this was reflected in the low share price of telecoms firms such as Telewest and Energis. And he claimed that the end would come sooner for them than for the GDSs, because the GDS firms still had plenty of opportunity in other less technologically advanced markets such as Spain.

He claimed that neither operators or suppliers were prepared to continue paying current charges for the services provided by the GDSs or Telcos. According to Mr Wortham operators will stop paying for viewdata on a connection basis in the UK within the next 12 months. In the short term this will lead to more charges being passed on to agents which in turn will give agents more reason to go instead to websites that have been tailor made for them – such as that offered by Gold Medal.

Mr Wortham also paints a bleak picture for the UK‘s travel agency community. He told TravelMole: “Costs are shifting to them but they offer less and less value to the consumer. There’s an argument that some people will always want to go into a high street shop, but they used to say that about insurance. No-one does that anymore – if they’re naive they phone the call centre, otherwise they go on the internet. I struggle to see how travel agents will survive – there’s not enough niche markets for 8,000 agents in the UK.”

He did have some good news for agents however. According to Mr Wortham, RWA is close to tying up a deal with a UK operator that would operate on similar lines to the work the company has already completed with Germany’s fourth largest tour operator FTi. The solution allows agents to have their own website complete with their own logo, branding and company details which links behind the scenes to the operator’s internet booking engine. Advantages of the system include the fact that the agent gets a web presence as well as commission on the sale, while the operator increases its amount of business. It also means tickets can be picked up by the customer at his local agency.

See our previous stories:
5-Jun-2002: Worldspan to evaluate new pricing strategies
03 May 2002: Troubled Telewest to axe 1,500 staff
28 Jan 2002: Energis in severe trouble after profit warning

See previous TravelMole interviews:
17-Jun-2002: Paul Blackney, Worldspan
11-Jun-2002: Mark Jones, Online Travel Corporation
27-May-02: Oliver Hillel, UNEP
20-May-02: Keith Webber, Telewest
13-May-02: Mark O’Brien, Rosenbluth International
07-May-02: Alicia Gardner, Sabre
29-Apr-02: Carolyn Ezzell, Delta Air Lines
23-Apr-02: John Davis, Pegasus Solutions
15-Apr-02: Gregory Hunt, ABTA Arbitration Scheme
09-Apr-02: Stuart Winter, Atinera
03-Apr-02: Roberto Da Re, Dolphin Dynamics
26-Mar-02: Arnaud Debuchy, Amadeus
19-Mar-02: Helen Baker, Lastminute.com
12-Mar-02: Pat Minogue, Galileo
07-Mar-02: Jon Hart, MyTravel
28-Feb-02: Lawrence Hunt, Rapid Travel Solutions