Where do tablets fit into the travel process? The tablet un-tethers the traveler from the desktop whether in a hotel room, at the airport, on an airplane or siting on the living room couch. The tablet itself greatly expands a traveler’s ability to dream and plan a vacation, but what about using a tablet while on holiday? Tablets can be used for both long term and near planning, but how about...
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 presentation in an upcoming...
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...
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 as Kayak felt...
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....
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...
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 as a way to deliver electronic brochures. At that time...
We have entered a new era of sentient things. The world around is now being augmented with tags. Whether they are Quick Response (QR), Microsoft Tags or an NFC enabled sticker, the world around us has come alive with information and links. Howard Rheingold author of Smart Mobs, first talked about sentient things in 2001 predicting: ” Information in places: media linked to location. * Smart...
Since my December post, a number of developments have occurred on the evolving travel distribution front: Sabre and AA have called a temporary truce and are in negotiations to resolve their conflict Priceline has embraced the AA direct connect strategy clearly following an independent path from Expedia and Orbitz USAir has signed a multi-year agreement with Expedia which includes the sale of Choice...
News this week that AA successfully defeated the Orbitz motion for a temporary injunction allowing AA to remove its content from Orbitz has uncovered some interesting news that may foretell major changes in air distribution for 2011 and beyond. As reported in the Beat, sources are indicating that Priceline may be the first of the four major OTAs to contract with AA’s direct connect solution....