Travel Technology Consulting Inc.
type: channel
description: Demystifying Emerging Technologies for the Travel Industry
date: 2024-02-21T01:10:21Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
generator agent: https://wordpress.org/
items: https://www.traveltechnology.com/2024/02/3565/
items: Rethinking the Role of Online Booking Tools in Corporate Travel
items: The Philip Wolf I Knew
items: Maybe What is Needed for Leisure and Corporate Travel to return is Local Human Support
items: Can Anyone Really Capture the SME Travel Market?
items: Who Pays for the Needed Upgrade to Travel Distribution?
items: Will Med-Tech Save the Travel Industry from Covid-19?
items: The Challenge of Being a Disruptor – Changing the Fundamentals of Travel Distribution and Settlement

https://www.traveltechnology.com/2024/02/3565/
type: item
creator: admin
date: 2024-02-21T01:10:20Z
subject: Travel Technology

Rethinking the Role of Online Booking Tools in Corporate Travel
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2022-05-05T19:41:36Z
subject: Airlines
subject: Corporate Travel
subject: Dynamic Packaging
subject: Travel Distribution
subject: Travel Technology
subject: airlines
subject: travel technology
description: Way back in the early 2000s I was asked to address a session at Oracle Corporation shortly after they had acquired e-Travel. I was introduced as the “grandfather” of self-booking tools. This title reflected my early adoption of this tech at Sun Microsystems and the fact that I authored the first analysis of OBTs back in the late 1990s. That […]
encoded: Way back in the early 2000s I was asked to address a session at Oracle Corporation shortly after they had acquired e-Travel. I was introduced as the “grandfather” of self-booking tools. This title reflected my early adoption of this tech at Sun Microsystems and the fact that I authored the first analysis of OBTs back in the late 1990s. That title was a bit frightening as I was only in my mid 40s at that time. Now that I am in my mid 60’s I feel it is time to reflect on the role of OBTs and how they have evolved in the market. I have seen the technology move from a few early adopters to become a mainstream component of all travel management programs. The original pitch of OBTs was to automate the travel process allowing the traveler direct access to booking information so they would choose the right options that met their needs. The addition of policy filters was designed to direct the traveler to the preferred supplier to ensure their choices were policy compliment. Nearly 25 years later, I believe it is time to re-evaluate the role of OBTs and recognize how they now act as gatekeepers and even obstacles to innovation. Many corporate travel managers have heard a clear message from their airline suppliers, carriers are moving from a process of static percentage off discounts to an era of continuous pricing and dynamic bundles. This simply means you can no longer compare offers in the same way as in the era of static percent off discounts. The challenges faced by ATPCO’s Next Generation Store Front or the lawsuit between American Airlines and Sabre over the Delta value pricing display illustrates how comparing offers between carriers is challenging in a dynamic pricing era. Carriers such as Southwest are also put at a disadvantage in this apple to oranges search as their free baggage policy is not shown as an advantage and their lack of seat assignments is viewed as an inferior offering. The question that should be asked is how the OBT model fits with standard corpora…

The Philip Wolf I Knew
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2021-03-17T19:49:24Z
subject: PhoCusWright
subject: Travel Technology
subject: Innovation
subject: Travel Innovation Summit
subject: travel technology
description: Philip’s passing yesterday was a shock for all who knew him, but for me it was extremely personal. My journey with Philip Wolf goes back nearly 30 years and I can state emphatically that Philip fundamentally had a positive impact on my life in countless ways and has had a lasting dramatic impact on the global travel industry. As […]
encoded: Philip’s passing yesterday was a shock for all who knew him, but for me it was extremely personal. My journey with Philip Wolf goes back nearly 30 years and I can state emphatically that Philip fundamentally had a positive impact on my life in countless ways and has had a lasting dramatic impact on the global travel industry. As someone who knew Philip beyond his famous stage presence, I knew first-hand of his ability to identify both business and tech trends that would become mainstream often acting as a catalyst to the drive entire travel industry forward by embracing emerging technology and driving innovation. With a nearly 30-year relationship, my list could be endless on Philip’s influence on my life and the future of travel technology. Here are just a few points I would like to highlight: After being asked to be a judge at the first Travel Innovation Summit, Philip asked me join him and Bob Offutt in planning, screening, and enhancing the startup competition. We were the core team for many years behind the scenes making everything seem seamless. Every year at the staff party after the Conference, Philip would find Bob and me and grill us stating that we “should blow-up the Innovation Summit and recreate it for the following year”. This was Philip, never satisfied with past accomplishments and always anxious to innovate. Working with startups became a key part of my consulting practice and I owe the roots of my expertise to the 12 years working on the Innovation Summit. In fact, in the travel space, other startup competitions, travel startup incubators and accelerators owe a debt of gratitude to Philip for starting the ball rolling with the Innovation Summit. Philip and I were in Paris back in 2005 (I believe) delivering project results to the CEO of a major TMC. I remember vividly Philip telling us all “you need to pay attention to Facebook”. Talk about vision, at that time Facebook was only available on college campuses! His support for his people was unparal…

The Philip Wolf I Knew
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2021-03-17T19:18:14Z
subject: PhoCusWright
subject: Travel Technology
subject: Philip Wolf
description: Philip’s passing yesterday was a shock for all who knew him, but for me, it was extremely personal. My journey with Philip Wolf goes back nearly 30 years and I can state emphatically that Philip fundamentally had a positive impact on my life in countless ways and has had a lasting dramatic impact on the global travel industry. As someone […]
encoded: Philip’s passing yesterday was a shock for all who knew him, but for me, it was extremely personal. My journey with Philip Wolf goes back nearly 30 years and I can state emphatically that Philip fundamentally had a positive impact on my life in countless ways and has had a lasting dramatic impact on the global travel industry. As someone who knew Philip beyond his famous stage presence, I knew first-hand of his ability to identify both business and tech trends that would become mainstream often acting as a catalyst to the drive entire travel industry forward by embracing emerging technology and driving innovation. With a nearly 30-year relationship, my list could be endless on Philip’s influence on my life and the future of travel technology. Here are just a few points I would like to highlight: After being asked to be a judge at the first Travel Innovation Summit, Philip asked me to join him and Bob Offutt in planning, screening, and enhancing the startup competition. We were the core team for many years behind the scenes making everything seem seamless. Every year at the staff party after the Conference, Philip would find Bob and me and grill us stating that we “should blow-up the Innovation Summit and recreate it for the following year”. This was Philip, never satisfied with past accomplishments and always anxious to innovate. Working with startups became a key part of my consulting practice and I owe the roots of my expertise to the 12 years working on the Innovation Summit. In fact, in the travel space, other startup competitions, travel startup incubators, and accelerators owe a debt of gratitude to Philip for starting the ball rolling with the Innovation Summit. Philip and I were in Paris back in 2005 (I believe) delivering project results to the CEO of a major TMC. I remember vividly Philip telling us all “you need to pay attention to Facebook”. Talk about vision, at that time Facebook was only available on college campuses! His support for his people was un…

The Philip Wolf I Knew
type: item
creator: admin
date: 2021-03-17T19:12:01Z
subject: PhoCusWright
subject: Travel Technology
subject: Philip Wolf
description: Philip’s passing yesterday was a shock for all who knew him, but for me, it was extremely personal. My journey with Philip Wolf goes back nearly 30 years and I can state emphatically that Philip fundamentally had a positive impact on my life in countless ways and has had a lasting dramatic impact on the global travel industry. As […]
encoded: Philip’s passing yesterday was a shock for all who knew him, but for me, it was extremely personal. My journey with Philip Wolf goes back nearly 30 years and I can state emphatically that Philip fundamentally had a positive impact on my life in countless ways and has had a lasting dramatic impact on the global travel industry. As someone who knew Philip beyond his famous stage presence, I knew first-hand of his ability to identify both business and tech trends that would become mainstream often acting as a catalyst to the drive entire travel industry forward by embracing emerging technology and driving innovation. With a nearly 30-year relationship, my list could be endless on Philip’s influence on my life and the future of travel technology. Here are just a few points I would like to highlight: After being asked to be a judge at the first Travel Innovation Summit, Philip asked me to join him and Bob Offutt in planning, screening, and enhancing the startup competition. We were the core team for many years behind the scenes making everything seem seamless. Every year at the staff party after the Conference, Philip would find Bob and me and grill us stating that we “should blow-up the Innovation Summit and recreate it for the following year”. This was Philip, never satisfied with past accomplishments and always anxious to innovate. Working with startups became a key part of my consulting practice and I owe the roots of my expertise to the 12 years working on the Innovation Summit. In fact, in the travel space, other startup competitions, travel startup incubators, and accelerators owe a debt of gratitude to Philip for starting the ball rolling with the Innovation Summit. Philip and I were in Paris back in 2005 (I believe) delivering project results to the CEO of a major TMC. I remember vividly Philip telling us all “you need to pay attention to Facebook”. Talk about vision, at that time Facebook was only available on college campuses! His support for his people was un…

Maybe What is Needed for Leisure and Corporate Travel to return is Local Human Support
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2020-08-19T22:39:30Z
subject: Airlines
subject: Airport
subject: Corporate Travel
subject: Covid-19
subject: Hotels
subject: Travel Agency
subject: corporate travel
subject: gig economy
subject: leisure travel
subject: Prontopia
description: It was 1992 and I was traveling with an associate at Sun Microsystems to Montreal visiting a travel software company. My traveling companion was a classic road warrior who went into auto-arrival mode as soon as the plane landed. As he bolted out of the plane when the door opened, I struggled to keep up as his routine was clearly […]
encoded: It was 1992 and I was traveling with an associate at Sun Microsystems to Montreal visiting a travel software company. My traveling companion was a classic road warrior who went into auto-arrival mode as soon as the plane landed. As he bolted out of the plane when the door opened, I struggled to keep up as his routine was clearly set in stone. Of course, that was then, today as the travel industry struggles to map a revival path out of Covid-19, corporations and travel providers must ensure that travelers, such as my former colleague, are ready for all unexpected situations on their trip. There are just too many variables today. Will quarantine be necessary? What if upon arrival Covid-19 is detected? What if the stay is extended and the traveler needs other services after they arrive? The standard corporate travel solution in dealing with emergency medical situations involves dedicated services such as International SOS. This was an adequate solution pre-Covid-19, but with the global pandemic, these services will be limited to travelers who are ill. What if the traveler needs more mundane things such as a prescription refilled, a repair of broken glasses or simply help in navigating a non-English speaking country? We clearly need a different type of support network for travelers’ post Covid-19, for not only traveler piece of mind, but also the multitude of service needs caused by the pandemic. This can be viewed as an expanded definition of duty of care. This is what attracted me to become an advisor to Prontopia. At first view, I mistakenly thought Prontopia was simply another gig economy company offering local tour guides through an app. I had seen many of these types of services launched in the past 10 years with little success. In a way, the failure of local tour guide apps was surprising considering gig economy companies such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb exploded during this same time period. But the idea of local tours never took off, so my first reaction meeting S…

Can Anyone Really Capture the SME Travel Market?
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2020-08-04T23:15:18Z
subject: Corporate Travel
subject: GDS
subject: Travel Agency
subject: Travel Distribution
subject: Travel Technology
subject: SMB
subject: TMC
subject: travel agency
description: It was 1996 and I had just launched my consulting practice the prior September. On the agenda that day were consecutive calls with two startups, The Trip.com (not associated with the current iteration of the former C-Trip OTA) and BizTravel.com. Their mission was clear; to bring digitized travel management to the small/medium enterprise (SME) segment. And of course, the rest […]
encoded: It was 1996 and I had just launched my consulting practice the prior September. On the agenda that day were consecutive calls with two startups, The Trip.com (not associated with the current iteration of the former C-Trip OTA) and BizTravel.com. Their mission was clear; to bring digitized travel management to the small/medium enterprise (SME) segment. And of course, the rest is history, these companies went on to become the dominant players in SME business travel space, right? Wrong, within the next few years both these companies would go out of business despite investment from industry heavyweights such as Rosenbluth International. Fast forward to the early 2000’s and I found myself in the boardroom of Netscape, the leading Internet browser at the time. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how Netscape could partner with Sabre BTS (this was prior to the GetThere acquisition) to create a SME portal where travel services would be part of a number of small business offerings. Suffice to say neither the SME portal idea nor in this case the actual company known as Netscape survived. Over my 38 year career in the travel industry I have seen additional attempts at aggregating small business travel whether it was the Delta Airlines dedicated small business portal launched in the early 2000s only to be shut it down in 2002, or the more recently the acquisition of Hipmunk by SAP Concur again targeting the SME segment, which failed and was subsequently closed earlier this year. News today that yet another acquisition has taken place where Online Booking Tool (OBT) startup, WhereTo, has been purchased by Flight Centre again with the goal to attack the SME segment. Why does Flight Centre expect to succeed in the SME segment with WhereTo especially given the fact that WhereTo was designed for large enterprise customers? A great deal depends on how it is executed. Over the last four years the market has seen the emergence of well-funded new digital TMCs in the form of Trip A…

Who Pays for the Needed Upgrade to Travel Distribution?
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2020-07-24T00:00:44Z
subject: Airlines
subject: Corporate Travel
subject: Covid-19
subject: GDS
subject: Innovation
subject: NDC
subject: Travel Agency
subject: Travel Distribution
subject: Travel Technology
subject: corporate travel
subject: hotels
subject: TMC
subject: travel distribution
description: As we are in the midst of one of the most devastating events in the history of the travel industry, the Covid-19 pandemic, you might find it odd time for me to write a blog article about the need to upgrade technology infrastructure for travel distribution. No one has any money, not the airlines, the GDS, the OTAs or the […]
encoded: As we are in the midst of one of the most devastating events in the history of the travel industry, the Covid-19 pandemic, you might find it odd time for me to write a blog article about the need to upgrade technology infrastructure for travel distribution. No one has any money, not the airlines, the GDS, the OTAs or the TMCs. Even the newer NDC aggregators and next generation TMCs are challenged with a lack of revenue and struggling to find investment for future tech enhancements. How can anyone think of investing in new platforms while the industry suffers through one of the worst six months in the history of modern air-based travel? As I stated in some prior blogs, it is often during severe industry disruption that change occurs. Remember Expedia came into prominence after the 9/11 to grow to dominant online travel by the mid-2010s and Airbnb and Uber came out of the Great Recession in 2008 to emerge as of major disruptors in travel. Those who sit by the sidelines during the pandemic and in turn decide to wait until the market improves to make a tech investment, frankly, may simply not survive as the pandemic continues to devastate the industry through the end of 2020. Why does the infrastructure need to be changed anyway? When I conducted my extensive NDC research last year, this is a common refrain I heard especially from some very large TMCs and OTAs. Well, this is certainly a matter of perspective. The fact that airlines who for years suffered severe losses while the GDS, OTAs and TMCs generated profits certainly has caused friction since the airline divested ownership of the GDS. It is important to note that the very fees paid by the airlines and other suppliers to the GDS has been a significant source of the GDS, OTA and TMC profits. I doubt any airline distribution executive would state that the today’s travel distribution infrastructure fully meets their needs. A similar refrain could be voiced by hoteliers especially independent properties that have a hi…

Will Med-Tech Save the Travel Industry from Covid-19?
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2020-06-24T00:02:12Z
subject: Airlines
subject: Airport
subject: Corporate Travel
subject: Covid-19
subject: Innovation
subject: MedTech
subject: airlines
subject: corporate travel
subject: V-Shield
description: As the industry shows signs of a limited recovery, many hope science, and specifically, advancements in medical technology (Med-Tech), will play a key role in ensuring cleanliness and safety to help the travel industry recover. Most pundits will agree that without extensive testing and contact tracing, controlling the pandemic is a challenge. Of course, a vaccine is the best solution […]
encoded: As the industry shows signs of a limited recovery, many hope science, and specifically, advancements in medical technology (Med-Tech), will play a key role in ensuring cleanliness and safety to help the travel industry recover. Most pundits will agree that without extensive testing and contact tracing, controlling the pandemic is a challenge. Of course, a vaccine is the best solution for the pandemic, but realistically, a vaccine will not be ready for widespread use for many months. Therefore sterilization procedures and health monitoring efforts are essential now to help revive the travel industry. A few weeks ago, Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying, asked me to participate as a mentor in their new Launchpad initiative. I applaud Shashank and his SimpliFlying team in taking a proactive stance on helping the airline industry recover, with the goal to provide solutions that can be implemented today. The team at SimpliFlying took a rapid response approach to this effort focused on four key areas critical for airline recovery: Sanitation/Cleanliness, Touchless Travel, Ancillary Revenue Opportunities and Contact Tracing. Every few weeks, a new batch of companies present to a group of airline and airport executives. The first batch focused on Sanitation/Cleanliness and presented their solutions last week. My interaction with the first batch of Launchpad startups presentations reinforced the fact that the industry needs to look at solutions for sterilization and cleaning that exist outside of the travel industry, often used in places like hospitals, shopping malls and office buildings. Most of the 1st batch of Launchpad startups use some sort of cleaning method (UV light, robot cleaning, sensors) to clean surfaces and monitor supplies. One startup stood out that could have a major impact on all sectors of the industry, and I wanted to highlight it here. The company is V-Shield. <img decoding="async" src="https://www.traveltechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/VShield…

The Challenge of Being a Disruptor – Changing the Fundamentals of Travel Distribution and Settlement
type: item
creator: Norm Rose
date: 2020-06-17T21:24:17Z
subject: Airlines
subject: Airport
subject: Corporate Travel
subject: Covid-19
subject: GDS
subject: Hotels
subject: Innovation
subject: NDC
subject: PhoCusWright
subject: Travel Distribution
subject: Travel Technology
description: It was a Sunday afternoon in 2013 and I did something I normally don’t do; I checked my Facebook feed (I’m not a big FB user). There I discovered a Meetup for Travel Startups scheduled for the upcoming week in San Francisco. It happened to coincide with an event where I was speaking earlier in the day, so I decided […]
encoded: It was a Sunday afternoon in 2013 and I did something I normally don’t do; I checked my Facebook feed (I’m not a big FB user). There I discovered a Meetup for Travel Startups scheduled for the upcoming week in San Francisco. It happened to coincide with an event where I was speaking earlier in the day, so I decided to attend. What I found was a group of young entrepreneurs (about 20 people) all trying to create the next killer travel site/app. I sat next to a software developer named Maksim Izmaylov and after the meeting Maks and I started the beginning of many conversations about the challenges software developers face in obtaining API access to innovate in the travel sector. We both agreed there must be a better way to allow the broader software developer community to drive innovation by building against industry APIs. Maks first effort was to form Travel Tech Con, an independent conference for early stage travel startups based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A few years later Maks and his business partners embraced blockchain technology and embarked upon building the first open, secure marketplace based on distributed ledger technology. I was enlisted as an early advisor to Winding Tree and I have been working with team for the last three years. It is hard to be a disruptor. Maks’s presentation at the 1st Phocuswright Battleground Americas in 2017, was not well received. Maks essentially described a vision where an open blockchain platform could be the foundation for travel distribution, eliminating the middlemen. Many of the Dragon’s questions focused on “how do you make money” rather than understanding the seismic change that blockchain technology could bring to the industry. As Maks was determined to first create a non-profit marketplace platform, the investor mindset just did not apply here. Unfortunately, Maks and his COO Pedro have experienced similar reactions over the subsequent years at various travel conferences as the industry continued to struggle with…