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Cendant TDS launches Galileo Leisure

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

In a bid to increase agent emphasis on non-air transactions, Cendant TDS (Travel Distribution Services) recently launched its Galileo Leisure website in India. Billed primarily as a leisure travel tool, Cendant has so far launched Galileo Leisure in select Asian countries. The website, according to Cendant TDS, International Markets Division, president and CEO, Gordon Wilson, will allow travel agents to have access to important information which would ordinarily not be available on the GDS and will increase revenue streams by integrating hotel room nights, car rentals and insurance into the services they sell. Interestingly, Galileo will also take care of commission remittance from principals to agents, thereby allowing agents to focus on their core business of providing service. Galileo Leisure also features a group booking facility.

"Travel agencies now have the opportunity to broaden their revenue stream and at the same time value add for their clients, and just one PNR integrates all of it. In a way we've built a new front end. The agents now don't have to worry about how to deal with the airline. They simply get all the updated schedules and fares of all the airlines to access on a single screen and from behind the scenes, we transact with the airlines using a variety of methodologies," Wilson said. Following the zero commission regime in South Africa, the reliance on non-air revenues went from 20 per cent to 60 per cent.

Marco Gorin, market development director, Asia, Cendant TDS, added, "Galileo Leisure is a product that enables travel agents to look and book ground content and integrate with air content into a single itinerary for their travellers. This provides an ideal platform for Indian ground content to be available to all Galileo agents around the world using Galileo Leisure. If you combine this new product with our ability to offer Indian domestic carrier bookings to travel agents around the world as well, you have a potent combination that can truly enhance the Indian offering globally."

Regarding the tricky question of a zero commission regime in India, Wilson said that GDS should focus on providing solutions to contain the new dynamics and facilitate the course of the future, since "We provide the operating system and from that perspective we have to be engaged in the dialogue. However, what we are saying is that the overwhelming reliance on air ticketing needs to change, especially the non-air products. We will provide the several ancillary principals which still give substantial commissions," he said.

Galileo Leisure is a compliment to the GDS system with a database of 21,000 hotels, a negotiated rate and allocated inventory. Galileo will pay the commission to the agents for all the services they book. At some stage, Cendant may also look at launching Orbitz in India, Wilson said.