Amadeus has dropped the word ’distribution’ in its lexicon, in favour of ‘travel channels’, and is building a new Amadeus Travel Platform to tap future growth.
It’s not just a change of name but a change in strategy in which it sees the future growth being in non-air, said senior vice president travel channels and a member of the Amadeus’ executive committee, Decius Valmorbida, interviewed in Bangkok.
The company is putting its priority on a new “fully open” platform that will pull in content other than air – ground transport, in-destination tours & activities, accommodation, LCCs or traditional airlines that do not participate in the typical GDS model, and so on – sourced from alternative means, including APIs or even direct from web through screen-scraping.
This will enable travel agents to provide their customers with a full array of options at any given moment, from the time they start establishing a relationship with a client, to when the client is buying travel, during his trip and even afer.
Said Valmorbida: “We’ve shifted our focus to the travellers, who are being exposed to travel trends, are used to shopping at high speed and want a convenient one-click buying.
“And wherever the consumers spend their time the most at, desktop or mobile, that’s where we should be. These days it need not be a browser as you know. Messaging platforms such as WeChat, Line, KakaoTalk, have become merchant platforms today.
“More and more, travel agents are telling us they want to provide customers with the full array of options at any given moment…We feel that combining GDS content with offers that are not available on the GDS but on the web would give that powerful combination to agents; that’s what the business needs.”
Valmorbida gives the example of a client who is on a seven-day trip and has filled up the first three days but not the remaining days. “Has that retailer been in contact with this client to propose a few activities in-destination that he could enjoy? Again, it’s about choices and making content available throughout the journey, not just the moment the client buys,” he said.
