Travel Managment - Business Analysis by Ashish Kumar Gupta
“ Travel Management Companies search for Global Uniformity by next generation technology offering, building data warehouses and creating partnership in areas where a bigger and more local presence is needed ”
The tourism & travel industry is still growing at a pace of 5.4% in the number of passengers to be transported next year (IATA forecasts). Thus a more strong technological support will be needed which should have customer centric approach while understanding the business environment.
TMC & TECHNOLOGY
Main objective of a technology partner and solution provider is to deliver right solution to strengthen Travel Management Companies market leadership. Major Areas of Technological Advancement for Travel Management Companies are following
1. Air, Hotel, Cars, LCC & Packages Content Distribution and
Management System
2. Travel Management Companies Selling Solutions and
Management System
3. Travel Management Companies Business Management
4. Customer Data Management
5. Reporting and Business Intelligence
6. Services and Consulting – BPO Services
7. Legacy Applications Re-engineering
8. Enterprise Application Integration
9. Package selection and implementation
10. Data Centre / IT Infrastructure Management
TMC Solution enable e-commerce driven travel business by providing
Rich, accurate, unbiased and personalized information to the travelers thus Travel agencies and TMC have to evolve and perform as a travel advisor in the coming future by the help of the cutting edge technology and support. Main emphasis for the future growth will be on Travel Agencies and TMC to meet traveler’s requirements through end to end customized technological solutions including portals, GDS connectivity, fare search, corporate travel management, and ticketing. Travel Agencies and TMC have to manage their costs effectively and have to evolve measures to quickly disseminate information on their travel products to their customers.
Distribution Management System for TMC consists of access to comprehensive Air, Hotel, and Car content. Access of flight schedules of major global airlines, Low Cost Carriers. Advanced Seat Reservation Techniques like booking a specific seat in real time on request of a customer. TMC also need to excel in market competition by instant access to ticketing and fare information and also enable the TMC to issue e tickets instantly. Cross Selling Intelligence has to be attached to this Air booking by use of high speed comparison shopping for Hotel and Car in real time.
TMC has to use technology as an advantage by getting real time rates
Availability, use of rich multimedia content while selling high margin hotels with air tickets. Technology provides agencies all information in a single space needed while selling; Automation also helps in avoiding manual error and enables seamless flow of data and information from front office to back office. Technology helps TMC and Travel Agencies to enforce business logic and automate agent’s task.
One of the core areas of automation and Technology support to any TMC or Travel Agency is in managing the business and Accounting. Thus technology helps in providing secure and automated payments processing, clearing and reconciliation solution. Technology helps the TMC to analyze how the business is performing and thus helps in taking decisions for the future business growth by Business Consulting in Areas like Cost Structure Analysis, Benchmarking, and Productivity Analysis.
Road Ahead
Last Decade or so have not been kind to Travel Agents in terms of business and market struggle as there is a high rise in the online travel booking and many other factors like
2. Airline Discontinue Distribution via high cost / low return channels
3. Increased Carrier own direct online distribution
4. Use of online marketing to direct traffic to carrier website
5. Competitive and aggressive marketing by Airline website and online travel booking sites
6. Charging TMC for excessive billable action
7. Market crowded by CRS, GDS, Agency, and Retailers
Though there are thousand of TMC and Travel Agencies globally but the winning edge will be for those which are uniform and will integrate segments like leisure and corporate and also on the basis of product they sell and the technology and channel they use to research and book travel. Competitive edge for TMC will be based on TMC business model, and source of revenue and their strategies and market positioning.
TMC and Travel Agencies have to focus on the below points to advance and grow business
- Strategy to Increase TMC market share by major product segments (air, hotel, car, cruise, tour operator)
- Enhance Travel agents' booking methods from GDS, Supplier Web sites, and phone
- Research on how they bring uniformity between leisure agencies, corporate agencies and home-based agents
- Enhance TMC business models and sources of revenue by right decision and market study and application of correct technology solutions
- Next generation technology usage to keep the pace with the daily changing and evolving travel industry
Author –
Ashish Kumar Gupta
Business Analyst Pre Sales
Travel Business Solution Group
InterGlobe Technologies Limited
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