Atanas Christov, CEO of Vayant Technologies, a ground-breaking airfare search and pricing platform providing independent services in the post Google-ITA distribution landscape, offers thoughts on the future of online travel.
Online travel has had a great ride over the past decade. It has excited, wreaked panic and then excited again flyers, distributors and suppliers. Still, true innovation has somehow missed the flight. Matrix display calendars, ancillary revenues, messaging standards, trip planning, inspiration, and a constant stream of advertising – all new to the industry, but hardly broke new ground.
Travel distribution runs on some of the heaviest technology ever created. It moves data at the speed of light, feeds the world with travel information and transactions at the millisecond mark. It’s been lonely out here – and no wonder – it is a complex world that sits behind layers of protection. Innovation, as well as new entrants, had little choice but to stay clear.
Google took their time to step closer because they get it: travel is not just selling ads. They see a certain endgame, and their choice of ITA gives a bit of it away. ITA has part of its roots in distribution, and a bigger part in the laboratories of MIT across the street from its offices in Cambridge. ITA succeeded where many others failed and heralded a draft of newness that changed the way we shop for flights.
Google’s product range, now solely targeted at suppliers, can rapidly expand to link consumers – and become a GDS-like conduit, monetizing it through ad sales instead of segment booking fees. GDSes and meta-searches are rightly worried – “Googlita” can rapidly offer a powerful alternative that can vaporize their revenues.
Don’t blink too quickly at Google’s freshly-sourced ability to revolutionize travel in the trenches. An open ITA API, for example (remember Maps?) can make “Googlita” a needed platform for further innovation – making access limitations passé, reducing costs through ubiquity and allowing a host of new ideas to be implemented.
Together these two approaches are bound to create a new signature play for Google, with incalculable positive impact. Business strategies relying on data ownership will become unstable, system costs will drop, and from a carefully guarded fortress travel distribution will start to open up to innovation.
This thawing won’t take long – once the floodgates open, consumers will benefit as well as suppliers. For anyone in between, adaptability to new business models will make the difference.
Welcome to post-Darwinian travel.
