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`We Will Intensify Agent Community Training Programmes’
Kenneth Low (KL), VP-South Asia, Abacus International
and Viiveck Verma (VV), MD, Abacus India outline the company’s plans
for tapping the non-air travel segment and purpose built software for sub-agents
to Bhisham Mansukhani
What are your plans for the company as Abacus's Indian
manager?
VV: I will look to further strengthen Abacus's presence
here not just by adding more cities to our existing base. The content and value
addition is the focus and airlines will be solicited for that process. We hope
to deploy international products in India with a view to double our market share.
The agent community training will subsequently be intensified to ensure that
the products are used to add value to the travel business.
Do you see similarities between the airlines and Abacus
in driving down distribution costs by cutting travel agent commissions?
KL: While there are similarities, it still largely
remains in the domain of the airlines. They are consciously trying to drive
down costs and they expect us to help them achieve this. Global Distribution
Systems (GDS) cost to the airline is actually quite low - about one per cent
which does not mean much in the final analysis. But when costs are compressed,
every single aspect of it is suddenly magnified.
VV: The airlines believe that travel agents have to
evolve into consultants. On all fronts, it is the responsibility of the travel
agents to provide value and have the consumer understand that they need to recognise
this value bears a cost. The CRS companies are also over the initial bump and
are looking to consolidate and sustain their business. It is not about trying
to outdo one's competition, rather, contributing to and helping the evolution
of the business in India.
What are the new, latent revenue streams you are looking
at tapping in this calendar year?
KL: We are looking at non-air booking content, particularly
in the hotel booking space. Indian hotels are currently running at average occupancies
of over 60 per cent. There have been 50,000 room nights made available a day
and it has been swallowed by the corporate market almost instantaneously. This
is, however, a cyclical phenomenon and hotels will need a sophisticated, international
distribution network and the mid-segment category is a potential client for
this software. We will approach this market in phases and will launch this product
first in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
India is poised to be our second phase market in this respect.
A large part of the challenge herein is building a database of local content
for each market as well as looking at the leisure market. In some countries,
the leisure market is bigger than the corporate travel market and logically
all of this is a latent market for us.
VV: In India, we will first look at the high yield
segment before seeping down to the mid-segment. The objective behind that is
to set the benchmark from the onset in terms of the quality and thorough coverage
of the content. Both the low-cost aviation revolution and hospitality's seemingly
endless bull run augur well for Abacus this year. We see our growth embedded
in both the opportunities.
How successful do you think you have been at stamping out
malpractices indulged in by some of the travel agents using your reservation
software?
VV: It is not a uniquely GDS problem and it is how
we work with airlines and how they in turn work with travel agents that will
determine how effectively malpractices can be stamped out of the system. At
Abacus, we have a strict code of conduct wherein we orient our travel agent
partners with this code of conduct and underline the harm that such malpractices
do to the entire industry. With the Abacus Tracker, we have taken certain steps
in leading the way. We are however, not the biggest players in the industry
so far so we do not face the threat of losing significant market share because
of the existence of malpractices. That said, these malpractices are not unique
to GDS alone and it is the industry as a whole that needs to address all kinds
of illicit indulgences on a wider scale.
How important is the emerging Indian aviation scenario
from a growth perspective?
KL:We are positioning ourselves to tap the huge growth
in Indian aviation, particularly in light of Jet Airways and Air Sahara flying
to South East Asia and Europe and we recently had an airline specialist team
make a presentation to airlines regarding specific products. We will approach
all the airlines and look to add solutions to their back end from a cost perspective.
What about the sub-agent community?
KL:The sub-agent community has been looked at in recognition
of India's two-tier model of travel agents. We have evolved a product wherein
a consolidator is allowed to distribute and the sub-agent to make bookings.
The software has been christened Consolidator Res. It will be launched in India
this year.
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