Sundar Narasimhan, senior vice president of Sabre's labs and product strategy, breaks down technology transformations that will affect travel agencies' traditional way of doing business.
Rising affluence among a new generation of Asia-Pacific consumers means the global travel industry can expect nearly 90 million new travellers by 2025.
Competition is fierce and travel providers need to level up to keep up with what’s headed their way.
As hotels, airlines and travel agents undertake digital transformations, they should be aware of some of the hottest travel technologies shaping the future of the industry.
Agency managed commission (AMC)
AMC is a highly complex commission calculator that can show travel agents how much commission each booking will generate through an easy-to-read User Interface.
It is also used to enhance agency sales, and to generate detailed reports that can be used for consulting purposes.
What’s in it for agents? Money and time! Wouldn’t that be a great thing to have? Agents are entitled to commissions and may not be collecting them, or worse, they are collecting the wrong amount. In addition, time spent on commission-based ADMs can be a thing of the past.
Multimodal reservations
This complex, backstage technology will soon become widely available to travel agents, connecting both full-service carriers and participating low cost carriers to train routes, car rental services and alternate modes of transportation within the same itinerary.
As it evolves, virtual interlining will provide customers with a stress-free journey from point A, to point B, to point C, and back again.
Combining tickets into a single booking provides a complete overview of the trip, with all confirmation data compiled under one booking number. Virtual Interlining makes it easier for travel agents to rebook or reschedule legs of a trip should flights be missed, for example. It optimises the booking process and allows more flexibility from all parties involved in the transaction. This is changing the face of customer support!
Next gen storefronts
Smartphone adoption in Asia Pacific is likely to hit two billion users this year. This massive growth is changing everything — from the way people communicate to the way they shop.
As consumers expect more from their shopping experiences, suppliers are, more than ever, focused on enhancing their shopping capabilities.
As air content becomes more complex due to branded fares, a la carte ancillaries, bundling, and soon, dynamic NDC offers, the travel industry faces another challenge – how to display
the diverse offers in an easily comparable way?
Next-Generation Storefront will make this possible by better presenting, sorting, and finding the airline content that travellers are looking for, which will give travel agents a cohesive retailing experience.
Sabre and other industry partners are acting to create an industry standard for a storefront that displays all relevant airline offers and the information needed to easily compare offers from the same or different airlines.
With technology driving the travel industry developing so quickly, now is the time for industry players to be audacious, and to adopt innovative solutions that will transform the future of travel. By focusing on growth, speed, and optimising customer engagement, travel agents will be well-equipped to face the future of the fast-changing industry in which
they operate.
