eyefortravel - Travel Distribution India '06

‘Solution providers are exploring cell phones as payment gateways’

Haranath Lokanadham CTO, Worldspan India

Haranath Lokanadham, CTO of Worldspan India, tells Express TravelWorld that technology is essential not just for distribution but for back office and CRM as well

What kinds of technologies are currently popular among travel service providers and online travel agents?

Maturity in technology use is at different levels depending on the geography and scale of operations of the travel service provider. In India, technology use has been very limited. But players who do not have the requisite technology are fast recognising the need to upgrade - not only to stay ahead of the competition but in quite a few cases to survive.

This technology upgradation can be an independent initiative taken by the business or can be in a strategic partnership with an existing player. Some travel service providers have managed to put in place inventory management systems. The online travel agencies on the other hand have to be very technology-savvy and use everything in their means to handle scale and complexity that the variety of their offerings brings. They also need to manage the customer service aspect well with the use of back-office and CRM technologies.

Which technology solutions according to you are most effective for marketing and distributing travel online in India?

Internet and mobile penetration is on the rise in India. Any distribution strategy which encompasses these two delivery channels will be hugely successful. This obviously needs to be backed up by effective marketing of these channels as well. There are some solution providers who are working on enabling payment using the mobile phone. Today these solutions are a little cumbersome and expect the user to be tech-savvy. Once these solutions become more user-friendly, they will create a paradigm shift in the way commodity travel products are bought and sold.

What kind of technology solutions are you currently developing at Worldspan for your travel and hospitality industry clients?

Worldspan became a leader in the transition to server-based travel shopping with its introduction of e-Pricing, the travel industry's first multi-server pricing technology capable of searching millions of fares and hundreds of thousands of itinerary options to find the lowest available fares. We continue to innovate to keep in tune with the future needs of the two industries.

How popular and effective do you think the Internet is in India right now for travel service distribution?

Internet penetration is increasing month-on-month in India. The launch of the Indian railways portal and even the low-cost carriers has spurred the way customers buy travel. Although we have a long way to go, we have clearly set ourselves on the path to connectivity as a country. E-commerce transactions are witnessing more than a 100 per cent growth year-on-year. Travel purchases transactions are 60 per cent of the overall e-commerce transactions today. This is a clear indicator of the popularity and acceptability of the medium.

How critical is the GDS for travel distribution in India? Is it in anyway threatened by travel portals that have direct access to hotel and airline inventory?

GDSs and travel portals are partners that work together towards fulfilling the customers' travel needs. Although theoretically content can be accessed directly from suppliers, managing content of over 500 airlines and 70,000 hotels is a Herculean task and the business model to support this might not make commercial sense. Hence, GDSs will remain a core component of the travel portal offerings and work with them to service the end customer.