July 14, 2011

Mobile Vision Versus Reality

  Over the last 10 years I have been  a vocal advocate of the growing impact of mobile technology on the travel experience. I have written numerous articles, research reports, and I have given a number of speeches on the subject, including  most recently a keynote address at the Amadeus Airline e-Commerce Conference last month in Cannes (more about that research and […]
April 22, 2011

Airlines and GDS Battle in Court

The news this week that USAir has filled a suit against Sabre based on violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act comes on the heals of a similar lawsuit filled by AA against Travelport last week. These lawsuits may foretell serious disruption to the traditional travel distribution ecosystem. Most observers would agree that the GDS have been an oligopoly for some time and certainly a monopoly in […]
April 8, 2011

DOJ Approves Google ITA – What does it mean?

  Today’s announcement about the conditional approval by the U.S. Department of Justice of the acquisition by Google of ITA Software  is sending some shock waves through the travel industry. But at the end of the day what does this really mean? Here are some of  my initial  thoughts: General search becomes meta-search – There are very valid reasons why sites such […]
March 30, 2011

Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow

Last week at the Amadeus Airport Showcase in Cannes, France, I presented the results of  my whitepaper “Navigating the Airport of Tomorrow” commissioned by Amadeus. The paper used research conducted by JD Power on global consumer attitudes on the airline/ airport experience and perspectives obtained from some research conducted by AT Kearney on airport and airline IT pain points. I combined this with Travel […]
March 30, 2011

Speaking at the Israeli Travel and Tourism Agency Convention

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of providing a keynote address to the Israeli Travel and Tourism Agency Association annual meeting in Eilat, Israel. My talk entitled “The Impact of the Emerging Technologies and the Evolution of Distribution Systems on the Global Tourism Industry” covered advancements in mobile technology and key distribution issues including the Google/ITA acquisition and the turmoil regarding distribution between the […]
February 24, 2011

The Mobile Knowledge Gap

For the past 16 years I have lived and worked in the gap between emerging technologies and the travel industry. A consistent pattern has developed. A new technology emerges; consumer behavior changes and the travel industry tries to catch up. This was true with the birth of the Web in mid 1990s where travel companies first thought of the platform […]