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Hospitality Industry’s technology has come a long way. Big companies in the industry have kept up with the times by adopting CRM systems and POS software, and are now dealing with the incremental introduction of AI, IoT and IOV to revolutionize the way they communicate with consumers. 

Concierge services in the hotel industry are also changing a lot and innovation is impacting them. In concierge services, automation is slowly but steadily making its way, changing a lot of customer behavior and dynamics of service providers.Most hotels are introducing creative technological solutions to make the front desk experience of their guests more comfortable and hassle-free to avoid long queues and to be more casual and welcoming without the physical and digital gap generated by reception desks. All major global hotel businesses are moving in that direction.

A new concept of concierge

The truth of the matter is that today the internet, mobile apps, social media, review sites, online booking platforms give guests the ability to do local searches and take care of bookings and service requests on their own, turning each traveler into a professional concierge. That’s why this digital revolution will cause hospitality services to shift. 

Simply speaking, innovation has changed everything around the concierge, but at the same time, it has allowed industry operators to maintain momentum by taking advantage of the opportunities provided by digital and mobile devices. All of these innovations can facilitate concierge work, allowing them to spend less time on administrative/bureaucratic tasks and more time on human interaction and focus on the needs and desires of customers.

Challenges for the Concierge Service providers

Demand for travel concierge services is growing significantly, as increasing numbers of banks and credit card companies are providing travel services to attract customers and increase loyalty, particularly among the big spenders.The scope and importance of travel concierge services will rise as disposable income, card spending and millennial traveling increases.

Nevertheless, organizational inefficiencies and lack of technology adoption hamper the growth of this sector. Companies providing travel concierge services are affected by issues such as slow turnaround time in customer response, manual bookings, accounting and reconciliation errors, and lack of reporting capabilities to help them keep tabs on their business. Also, their customers are increasingly requesting self-serve B2C portals to allow their premium customer/loyalty program members to make online reservations.

Introducing Travel Concierge Solutions

PROVAB TECHNOSOFT has developed a comprehensive travel platform with interfaces for both concierge employees and end customers, as well as a back & mid-office system for booking management and business automation.It is a seamless platform for travel planning and collaboration that improves concierge efficiency and provides consumers with a top-notch experience. It produces accurate reports and allows centralized monitoring of transactions.

Benefits of Travel Concierge Providers

Client specific marketing

Greater Customer Satisfaction

Shorter Response Time

Increased Productivity for the Concierge

Accurate Reporting

Easier and Quicker Quote Sharing

Better Marketing & Promotions

Higher Conversion rate

Better Concierge-Client Communication

Eliminates Manual Booking Entries

Improved Revenue Management

Better Markups and Commissions Tracking

Features of our Back Office Module

The Travel Concierge Solution includes a powerful Back & Mid-office Module which facilitates the configuration of business and other key business processes including the management of portals, transactions, reward programs, employees, accounting, reporting, etc. The key features are as follows:

Advance business and pricing features for efficient revenue management

Promotions module which allows for delivery of intelligent promotions with business rules and availability criteria

Supplier and Customer Accounting

Ability to manage supplier-specific business rules from a single admin interface

Versatile Booking Management System

Management of both web and mobile bookings Ability to configure markup exceptions

Creates Custom Business Reports for all business needs

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To sum up, it seems that the human factor is still very relevant, even though the technology is increasingly being used in hotel concierge services. Also, a growing number of travelers are preferring destinations where they can turn off technology and the modern world in search of a kind of virtual detox that rewards human contact. There are even hotels advertising the fact that they offer free wifi stays, so it is quite clear that technology is still not capable of replacing a good concierge service completely.

But what’s the concierge’s future like? It’s hard to say yet. For the moment, the only certain thing is that humans and technology can not only coexist in the delivery of concierge services, but if combined smartly, they can offer great business opportunities to hoteliers and offer extremely high quality of service and personalization to hotel guests.

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Core Features

Before we head towards the factors that influence the cost of building an app like Amazon,  let’s have a quick look at the advantages, basic and advanced to be deployed in your app.

User-friendly Interface enabling hassle-free search operation.  

Listicles that outline all the products available in the online store.  

A section that notifies users about the latest offers,  deals and discounts, the orders placed and the status of delivery.  

A cart where users can add products either for prompt purchase or for later reference.

Recently, e-commerce apps are employing options for image searching.  So adding this might help outcast other apps.

Register and login option to ease the purchase process.  

Secured payment system ensuring the privacy of crucial data.  

Options to invite friends,  use referrals and earn in-app money.  

So,  these were fee basic features you can add in your app to get started.  

Important Factors That Affect The Cost Of App Development

Though apps like Amazon or Flipkart sound similar to other E-commerce apps, there are primarily the database category of apps and vary with the simple or the non database apps both in quality and cost.  

While we approximate the total cost filled to develop an app like Amazon, we segment all the factors and sum up the cost incurred for each element.  

A Platform on Which the App Would be Deployed

Apps could either be Android specific,  iOS oriented or hybrid. It goes without saying that developing a cross-platform app would incur higher costs. When considering any of the platforms, Android apps are no doubt cheaper than apps at iOS portal. However,  while developing the app, costs sustained for Android apps are higher as compared to the iOS apps. The fact that Android apps need to be tested multiple times and also the emulators for Android is slower than iOS ones boil down to the higher development cost for Android apps. However, getting effective development practices can cut down on the cost required to develop an Android app though it still would be slightly higher than the iOS apps.

Design Of The App

The look and feel of an app are decisive when it comes to controlling the app engagement. An attractive design accounts for better interface and higher user interaction. So when designing the app,  it is advisable to use better and feature technologies to influence the users. And employing modern technologies adds to the cost of app development.

Size Of The App

The total app size is calculated on the basis of features and functionalities embedded in the app. More the number of advantages or functions,  higher is the cost of an app like Amazon. If you desire to reduce the app development cost, you can cut down on the not so important features and keep the basic and the important ones. Later,  if you find a feature necessary, you can update the app and likewise proportionalized the total cost.

Freelancer or a Development Team

When designing and developing an app,  the most essential aspect is the individual or the team involved in developing an app.  Where as a freelancer would charge you less, a development team is more likely to have greater rates and this grew proportionally based on the experience and expertise the development team holds. However,  when building an app like Amazon, it is awaited that you employ someone who has both experience and expertise and hence you need to pay slightly more. To get the best app developed, try to pick an app development company.

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Adding a Mobile Wallet

One of the most trending advantages seen in apps is in-app wallets.  They remove the issues related to online payment and ease the entire purchase process. Where an app wallet is useful both for the user and the app owner,  it would absolutely cost high and increase the total development cost.

So,  when you are estimating the cost of developing an app like Amazon,  you need to consider all the above factors. Additional advantages like social media login, in-app calling, otp login add to the total development cost.

If you are looking for one such company that would help you design and deploy an app like Amazon,  you are at the right place. We are a team of software nerds who cater to all the requirements of our clients and help deploy an app at the budget suitable to both. We ensure optimal app performance enriched with features necessary to thrive in the competitive world.

Feel free to reach out to us for Consultation , write to us info@provab.com

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This year small businesses will account for more than 30% of public cloud usage. This will continue to increase because of the huge impact Amazon Web Services (AWS) is having in this specific market. They provide an extremely useful and flexible public cloud that works for a different services like storage, security, networking, computing, mobile development to run apps, and much more.

Most of their digital infrastructure can be hosted in the cloud making it much simpler and cost effective. In order to understand if Amazon Web Services is the right service for your small business, you have to know what your needs and budget plans are. If you don’t know that, then don’t make a purchase yet. You want to take the time to compare and see the difference between AWS with other companies like Azure to determine which is best.

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IT Usage

There are tools to help you monitor your current cloud and/or physical server usage of your application. Use these tools for few weeks to see what your business uses in order to decide what system will work best for your business.

The Cloud

Each part of your business which includes not only mobile apps and web apps, documents, videos, images, data, websites, and more can be on the AWS cloud. Whether you have a light load or a heavy load their cloud infrastructure can handle it and stable your data. You can also access your cloud directly from any place. Amazon makes it extremely easy to do so. Yes, there are other cloud data warehousing options out there for you which you should look at. You can compare them to AWS to see which is best for your business in terms of features and cost. Others, however, can be quite expensive.

Security

Besides cost, this is always at the top of the list when deciding who to go with. Security is extremely important for any business as there is always sensitive customer data that no business wants to get out. Amazon Web Service follows very strict guidelines to ensure proper data security. They always monitor all activity and provide backup facilities for all your data.

E-Commerce

If you have a small or Medium e-commerce business AWS provides some amazing features for you. All the transactions that are done on your business website plus website hosting can be done in a secure and simple way. It requires very little effort from your end as everything is pretty much done on its own through Amazon Web Services. It also provides a lot of workability through its SDKs so that you can give your customers exactly what they want and need.

App Hosting

Amazon Web Services also makes it easy for you to compile your mobile and web applications. Your apps can run and work better because with AWS you can deploy and scale better performance of your application. Apps will be more stable and give you and your customers a much better experience. Now you do have the option to do shared, dedicated, or cloud hosting which depends on your business so you should look into all of them before deciding.

Instances

There are multiple options for you to choose from so that you have the right amount of instances which suit your business needs. Many providers have this option as well but Offers you various options beyond most. It’s not just about adding or removing as you go along, there’s much more to it and AWS has the solutions you need for that.

Cost

Ok, now we are at the most important one, THE COST! There is no one size fits all here so the cost to each business is different.

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Storage

Also with Amazon Web Service is the more you use, the more you save. For example, if you fall under the standard storage category you would pay $0.85 per GB for 1 TB of storage in the first month. In the next month if you use anything between 1 TB and 49 TB its $0.75 per GB. On the far end if you use more than 5000 TB it only costs $0.43 per GB.

The standard storage is the most expensive but there are other types which are much less, this is just to provide you with an example of how using more lowers the cost. They also offer customized plans and bulk pricing for those with needs beyond their standardized ones.

It is really easy for startups to use AWS Activate to start this application process. You will be offered all sorts of tools and credits to get set up for free. You can also contact the AWS experts at SDI to know more information. You can speak with our experts at +91 8880 321 321 or email  at info@provab.com. You can discuss your business goals and find out exactly what will work best for you.

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Here are a few trends observed in millennial’s travel patterns:

Millennials travel More than Any Other Generation per Year

Millennials love to travel. Not only are they inclined to take extended-stay trips that encourage cultural immersion, but they also enjoy booking spontaneous weekend getaway whenever possible. This event has led Millennial travelers to travel for an average of 35 days per year. Because many Millennials are delaying marriage and having children, they often have more discretionary income to spend than other generations and travel is typically a top priority. They would rather book a trip than purchase a nicer car or a luxury home product.

Millennials take regular holidays and vacation to relax and unwind

The data shows that 55 percent of Millennials travel so as to relax. Many came of age during the recession, and they are used to dealing with a constant connection with their peers as well as their professional network. This added stress has increased the need for relaxing getaways that allow them to unplug. 83 percent of Millennials choose to vacation at all-inclusive resorts where they have everything they need right at their fingertips.

Advertising Campaigns can Influence Millennial Travelers

As opposed to the younger Generation Z, Millennial travelers are more likely to be influenced by an advertising campaign than they are a social media campaign. More than 72, percent of Millennial travelers say that a solid advertising promotion can convince them to book travel arrangements. Chiefly, online advertising — including retargeting and other social strategies — is the best way to connect and engage with Millennials. While these travelers have money to spend, they still like to get a great deal. Around 92 percent of Millennials report that they won’t finalize their booking until they feel they have the best deal possible.

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Millennials Prefer Experiences Over Sight-Seeing

Millennials may love to take selfies, but they want their vacations to be more than just an endless string of photo opportunities. Millennials are more likely to book a trip that allows them to be outdoors and experience something new, such as an informative tour or an immersive activity. Nearly 83 percent report that it is important to them to book a travel experience that allows them to cross an item off of their bucket list.

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Below are some of the most progressive technologies, which are coming out to play in the field of eTravel services in 2020. It will help you go with the tides of the latest industry tendencies and navigate freely amid the intricacies of the present-day digital travel ecosystem.

Recognition Technology 

The high-tech technology of recognition has a great potential for travel technology. Recognition Technology includes fingerprint, facial recognition, retina scanning or other biometric identification methods. The technology has been rolled out into the market some time ago and has already been deployed in a number of fields, primarily with the authentication, security or law enforcement aims.

The recognition technology, face recognition, in particular, has great potential for the industry of travel. The main spheres of the technology application are collecting data and identifying the personality of a traveler. It will allow the travel business stuff provide their clients with personalized services, reward them for being regular customers and grant them access to the associated services. It may be a gym or a pool, in a hotel, a special business lounge access from an airline, whatever.

Another essential purpose of the recognition technology is security. Face identification of the travelers with bad reputation can help the staff stay alert and be prepared to take measures whatever required.

Finally, the technology is particularly interesting for its possibility to takeout friction from lots of payment processes. It can make authorization quick and hassle-free. At the same time, it can automatically take into consideration all the bonuses, loyalty schemes or discount codes of the particular client.

Online Travel Booking 

Online travel booking is the service experiencing constant growth in the United States and Canada. The experts predict the expansion of the digital travel space and the online booking segment in 2019. Today most of all reservations in the sphere of traveling are made online, whether it’s accommodations, flights, tours or other journey-related activities. The travelers have now a perfect opportunity to review a great variety of deals on the web and choose the ones, which meet their needs, preferences, and expectations most.

Being a professional travel agent in United States and Canada, you can offer your customers to choose and book a tour on the web. As an air company  you can allow booking, purchasing and getting itinerary online. As a hotelier provide the possibility of room and extra facilities reservation through your site. You can just offer your clients the opportunity of booking and choosing services online and you will gain the majority of customers. Online services solve not only the problems of the users but help service providers as well.

Personalization 

Personalization is the biggest priority among the modern travel industry trends. To date, the majority of travelers worldwide admit that standard traveling process is not enough any longer. A personalized approach is now viewed more as an expectation than something extraordinary. People value the unique experience they can get, while on the go, no matter if it’s a holiday or a business trip. In fact, personalization has become the first priority among the modern trends in travel and tourism industry.

Some progressive brands have already started to introduce customized offerings and personalized services to their client Delta Flights, for instance, has already introduced account-specific messaging with corporate clients. It concerns their exclusive benefits. The flight attendants of Delta have recently got a Guest Service Tool. The device allows them to provide personalized services to corporate clients, including recognition, assistance, and even down-line flight and gate information.

More than that, the company is going to launch personalized sites for corporate customers. They will grant the travelers with account-specific access to all the Airline’s special offers for the most loyal clients.

To stand out in the modern market of travel services, one should be personal in the attitude to the customers, and add inherent value to what he offers to them. However, there is a challenge in capturing the necessary data and not to violate the principles of personal privacy. More than that, personalization requires sophistication, enthusiasm and technological solutions on part of the service provider, who aims to keep up with the most recent travel trends.

In case you are determined to offer your clients the most cutting-edge service, you should rely on expert tech solutions. Stfalcon is the very company, who has enough experience and expertise in the field of digital novelties for the traveling sphere. We at Provab Technosoft are eager to tailor the exquisite solution for you and your clients’ individual needs.

Voice technology 

Voice technology is a digital novelty disrupting the travel and hospitality sector. The human voice is the best and most effective means of communication and people want more convenience nowadays, whether it is connected with getting some information, making a reservation or adjusting something in your hotel room. Voice technology is an integral part of the other technologies entering the stage of the travel industry and it has much to do with personalization, artificial intelligence, and chatbots. Provab is reviewing all the latest travel tech trends to accordimate in their system. 

The main reason why an increasing number of hoteliers start introducing voice-activated devices at their hotels is the customers switch to voice interactions wherever it’s possible. Voice commands may be used for adjusting the hotel room settings to the individual needs of the guest, for the most up-to-date information provision, for the customer service purposes

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Mobile Applications

Mobile applications are one of the most significant  digital trends that are easiest to implement. Travel and tourism industry overview for the recent years has shown that half of the online booking operations are mobile. Actually, this digital trend is the easiest to implement into the travel industry of contemporaneity. Mobile applications can not only facilitate the booking and reservation procedures but combined with the IoT — Internet of Things — Technology can allow hotel guests, for instance, control room appliances.

Promotional messages can be used as a part of the travel marketing strategy. Combined with a beacon technology, mobile apps are able to make them most relevant to the individual’s location and preferences. With 2019, trends and reviews Provab Technosoft knows for sure what trends should be taken into consideration for a perfect app design.

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Largely, there are two types of Segments in Travel Technology: 

Active Segment

Passive segment

Active Segment

Airline bookings: each separate flight segment reservation identified by a separate flight number in a PNR, multiplied by the number of passengers booked in such PNR for such a flight segment.

2 Hotel bookings: each separate reservation processed through the GDS, regardless of the number of rooms or the number of persons or the duration of the stay.

3 Car rental, bookings: each separate reservation processed through the GDS, regardless of the number of vehicles or persons or the duration of the rental.

4 Cruise bookings: each separate cabin reservation, regardless of the number of travelers or the duration of the cruise.

5 Tour bookings: each separate reservation, regardless of the number of travelers or the duration of the tour.

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Passive Segment

A passive segment is a segment entered in a GDS that does not result in a ticket being issued. There are three situations when passive segments are booked:

1 Basic passive segment

2 A passive segment with due or paid fare or taxes from a refund or exchange

3 Passive segment as a retention segment

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Traveler satisfaction and revenue connects airline needs. To satisfy customers, carriers seek ways to learn more about their clients and provide a set of additional services like baggage insurance or onboard food. Those services are also called ancillaries, and are offered for additional fees. Given the small margins for core transportation services, the fees help to generate profits. To sell ancillaries to the passengers and be more profitable airlines struggle to deliver personalized content to their travelers. Considering that getting in touch with the end user is nearly impossible via the channels provided by global distribution systems, a new standard emerged to resolve the issue.

New Distribution Capability will enable the travel industry to transform how air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travelers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations: product differentiation and time-to-market, access to full and rich air content and finally, transparent shopping experience. ​​​​ 

The NDC standard enables the travel industry to transform how air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travelers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations:

Product differentiation and time-to-market

Access to full and rich air content

Transparent shopping experience  

Airlines, travel management companies, online travel agencies, corporate buyers, global distribution systems and other technology players contribute to the NDC Standard. Through a collaborative approach, participants ensure that the supporting schemas are functional and can be used by all regardless of business focus, geographic location, size, target markets and individual commercial policies.

An industry standard will facilitate a more efficient airline distribution system, thereby benefiting airlines, agents, GDSs, IT providers and travel start-ups.

Structured around seven distribution-related functions, the NDC Standard provides the opportunity to address the end-to-end airline distribution process, e.g. shopping, booking etc., and to deliver enhanced customer experiences.​​​​

New distribution Capability is important because:

It provides personalized shopping experience and access to customer information. Currently, most of the customer personal data remain in the hands of middlemen, OTAs and GDSs. This means that airlines get just basic information about their clients, which doesn’t allow for personalizing the shopping experience, the thing that has become a standard in modern travel eCommerce. The NDC standard’s goal is to provide airlines with direct information about their customers.

There is content and pricing autonomy. Another benefit of personalization is pricing autonomy. Currently, most airlines publish their tariffs via ATPCO, the tech provider and main source of pricing data. Having a third party as an intermediary between revenue management and distribution channels means that airlines miss the opportunity of dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing is the ability to create personalized fare and travel package offers based on individual client information. The new XML standard allows airlines to build their own APIs and change prices independently adding value to their offers and adjusting prices individually to each customer.

The traditional GDS model only permits airlines to display prices and schedules. While tariff metasearch engines and OTAs make it easy for travelers to compare pricing, airlines can’t market their added value services and fully compete. Rich content, that includes all service details, solves this problem.

There is a reduced reliance on legacy systems. Most airlines use legacy passenger service systems (PSS) that contain reservation info, fares, and schedule. The main purpose of the PSS is to show which seats are available for a given flight. PSSs may have poor performance, a number of other restrictions, and most PSS providers really lag in modernization. NDC will act as a separate engine outside of legacy systems that allow for presenting data stored in PSS databases using airlines’ private interfaces.

The distribution system in the air travel industry includes many players in the field. To link end customers with the actual airline, there are a number of intermediaries, represented by travel agencies, tariff publishers, GDSs, and so on. Most of the major players appeared decades ago or morphed from the older formations and continue to exist.

Currently, representatives from nearly all parties in airline distribution have embarked on the NDC initiative one way or another. According to the latest IATA NDC program update, the list of certified deployments reached 65 carriers. The number seems to have grown significantly since 2017 when IATA reported only 50 airlines adopting NDC. But, compared to the overall number of airlines connected to the major three GDSs, which is over 400, NDC adopters seem to be a minority. In 2018 IATA published a presentation of NDC standards, that includes new data on the number of airlines adopting NDC and IT providers.

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Major airlines managed to develop their NDC solutions, which sometimes differ in implementation. Here are some examples of airlines that adopted and implemented New Distribution Capabilities

Lufthansa was the first one to introduce a GDS surcharge and implement direct booking connection in its distribution. Currently, Lufthansa’s direct booking includes several distribution channels: travel agencies direct, aggregators, supplier mobile application, and supplier website. While its NDC version allows for offering rich content, the support of personalized bookings is still to be reached.

British Airways developed an NDC solution and integrated it with Kayak. Now their tickets are available directly through the Kayak platform. British Airways API allows for distributing through the following channels: direct connect through OTAs, IATA’s travel agents, GDSs, and online booking tools. Similar to Lufthansa’s API, British Airways doesn’t support personalized bookings yet.

Air Canada allows their API to be used freely across all channels. It seems that Air Canada presents the fullest range of NDC “advantages” for the moment, providing rich content, personalized bookings, airline profiles, air, and non-air related ancillaries.

Flydubai also has a competitive NDC implementation, being relatively equal to what Air Canada offers. The only difference is that Flydubai allows for distribution only through travel agencies and OTAs.

So, only a few among the NDC adopters have managed to present the full range of NDC benefits. Others are still establishing the connectivity between the distributors to get their direct channels to work.

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The core components of a passenger service system are:

• Central reservation system
• Airline inventory system
• Departure control system

The passenger service system allows an airline to sell their inventory (seats) and contains information on schedules and fares as well as a database of reservations (or passenger name records) and of the issued tickets. 

The main function of the airline inventory system is to define how many seats are available on a particular airline by opening or closing an individual booking class in accordance with rules defined by the airline.

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The departure control system is the system used by airlines and airports to check in a passenger. The departure control system is connected to the reservation system, enabling it to check who has a valid reservation on a flight.

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The companies’ requirements might be multifold as the company has invested much in their workforce and has to provide for the employees’ safety. Travel risk management should play a vital role in the travel booking system. The company also doesn’t want any employee to waste hours on extensively searching for their trip as it is not a family vacation, so choosing a business trip should be simple and easy. Many times, business trips are booked and then changed and changed again, along with associated

 rebooking fees, before they become an unused ticket. The company may want to add intelligence from previous trips to understand the cost of changes and better manage such a risk of added costs due to changes.

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One of the drawbacks today of travel booking system is that the system is a one size fits all approach. Customizations of customer requirements are the way to go. Once we understand the company’s requirements for business travel booking system, we can customize the tool for the company’s interest, and the traveler satisfaction should come by itself. 

A happy traveler, a happy manager.

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There are two IATA initiatives known as New Distribution Capability (NDC) and One Order that are evolving. If successfully adopted by the airlines, these practical initiatives have the potential to transform the fragmented distribution process that is in place today. They offer airlines a clearly signposted path towards modern retailing by putting the customer and not the flight at the heart of their distribution strategies. There is a lot of jostling for position in the lucrative corporate passenger segment. To succeed airlines know they need to increasingly drive higher yields through higher non-seat ancillary revenue streams, which can build brand and loyalty. IATA’s vision for the indirect channel is to simplify the current airline distribution process and systems with a set of standards that will enrich the selling of the tickets at one end and streamline the customer record fulfilment and payment process at the other. 

NDC is an XML-based data transmission standard that seeks to address many of the limitations of the air travel industries current distribution channels. It’s a well-established data protocol that facilitates interchange of electronic information between airlines and travel agents. It helps airlines to deliver the same rich and dynamic content to agencies as on their own web site (including ancillaries). One Order builds on the standardized communication approach with a view to replacing the multiple and rigid booking, ticketing, delivery and accounting methods with a single and flexible order management process.

Thus closing the existing capability gap between their direct and indirect channels.

Adopting the new standards will allow airlines to sell what they want, when they want, to whom they want through all the channels. Not only will they be able to make better and more relevant offers, explain what is included in bundled pricing and what isn’t, but customers too can begin to pick and choose what they wish to pay for and what not. 

The benefits of IATA’s initiatives are very clear and powerful and a game changer for the industry. But what are these benefits and who stands to gain? Let’s take a quick look at IATA’s new distribution landscape and the stakeholders involved. We can see the key stakeholders involved in making NDC happen are the:

Airlines supplying the products and services

Intermediaries and aggregators (resellers),

Travel agents acting on behalf of Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and corporate buyers who purchase the travel trips

Travellers the ultimate customers making the trip.

So let’s take a closer look at what the potential benefits are of an NDC enabled retail environment for each of these groups:

For Airlines

NDC completely transforms their ability to merchandise their offers and take control. They can:

Distribute all their products, including ancillaries to agencies and travel management companies.

Offer value-added products and services when applicable, on the basis of personal information, should customers choose to disclose it

Display more details about their products (bundled and unbundled) including rich descriptions of differentiating facilities with media such as photographs, etc.

Increase innovation and differentiation opportunities by bringing new products faster to market, which helps differentiation

Take advantage of personalisation opportunities by delivering a shopping experience based on customer preferences

For Intermediaries / Aggregators

This represents a key step change in the way airline distribution works currently. Today the intermediary is a GDS who accesses inventory and fare databases to create the offer and then enables to book, pay, and issue a ticket. Those are complex and very diverse functions. For example, credit card payments are processed directly by the GDS, interacting with a payment service provider to authorize the payment. In an NDC environment the aggregator is solely transmitting both shopping and ordering requests to the airline host environment.

The concept of aggregation is a key component to NDC-based distribution model. The intermediary is an aggregator and its role is to transmit the information back and forth from the travel agent to the airline. Aggregators, do three things:

Determine which airlines to ask when receiving shopping requests from travel agents

Forward shopping and other requests to the relevant airlines

Consolidate the offer responses from airlines and present results to travel agents

They too benefit from NDC by having:

Access to the entirety of the airlines products and content, including ancillaries and promotional fares.

Access to dynamic pricing and product information

The ability to offer better comparison shopping for traveler based not just on price but also the perceived value of ancillaries.

The ability to provide tailored services based on a customer’s travel history and preferences, if they chose to be recognized.

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For the Travel Agent

Travel Agents are in fact the prime target audience for NDC. They represent the 50% plus portion of business that is still transacted through them. And as you know, it also represents an even higher percentage of their revenues as the type of itineraries that stick to the indirect channel tend to have higher face value (we estimate approximately 40% higher on average) as these tend to relate to corporate travel often with complex itineraries and long-haul travel.

Rich content view of travel options

Greater transparency of fares across providers

Ability to personalise offers based on context

Greater reporting capability

Simply put, for Travel Agents and TMC’s, NDC facilitates an increased transparency of travellers total spend. The premise of this is that instead of travel managers having access to the fare cost only, with the traveller then individually booking and expensing ancillary products, NDC allows all costs of a flight to be captured within the original booking.

For the Traveller

For reasons of saving time and money, travel expense management, contract negotiations and customer support corporations in particular continue to channel their staff travel needs through agents. The traveller and the company paying for his trip are prime beneficiaries of the new NDC merchandising world.

One of the biggest selling points of NDC is the facilitation of personalised fares. Giving airlines the ability to service travellers with a fully customer-centric approach, dynamically pricing and personalising their products. This means, if the traveller agrees, elements of personal information are released to airlines when the initial fare is searched. Airlines then return a fare considering these details. To an extent, this feature is already exercised when booking flight directly with an airline via their websites, where they are able to identify and engage their customers with specific offers based upon their previous journeys. For corporate travel managers this is a positive development as it encourages employees back to booking through their TMC rather than arguing that a more attractive fare is available direct.

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