E-commerce in the travel industry
B2B e-commerce in the industry for years
- Inventory (CRS) linked though distribution (GDS) to retailers (agents) and financial settlement through ARC and BSP
- Centrally hosted and controlled around the GDSes
Todays e-commerce on open networks including customers
- Distributed systems of information sharing
- Independent businesses link together - direct access to consumers
Product exposure and web-prices
- GDS display of airline prices and availability must be given equal display due to to EC and DOT rules and regulation
- Main travel websites connected to GDS’es
- CRS/vendor and independent sites not subject to the rules
- Non-air product exposure depend on GDS web-channels