Continuity calls for change
By Janchrister EgneforsIn the last issue of Amadeus Magazine, I welcomed Easy Jet to the GDS community and wrote about the importance of new players continuing to connect themselves to the neutral marketplace. The future looks bright, but at the same time we cannot afford to believe that success comes by itself. In addition to the arrival of new players, it requires that we in the travel sector act together to drive our industry forward and that we are perceptive to our travellers’ needs – both current and future.
So, in this issueas graduates everywhere mark their momentous transition, we too prepare for the changes we have in store. Changes to meet new customer demands, in the introduction of new services and toward a more flexible view of travel packaging.
New players give us an even larger range of offers and thereby the prerequisites to continually be able to offer our customers a greater freedom of choice. At the same time, it can be easy to lose track if we don’t actively work to use the contents to create additional value for our travellers.
That paper tickets are now being laid to rest is a good thing, I believe. Not only because we are spared troublesome ticket printers (you have by the way surely noticed that we’ve begun retrieving the ABT printers?) and that the post office bills are smaller, but also that this can do a great deal for the environment. The best thing about the demise of paper tickets, I think, is that a roadblock disappears in the dialogue with our travellers. It is now mentally easier to not equalise the booking confirmation with the end of dialogue between agency and traveller.
With yesterday’s ticket in the grave, we can more clearly see tomorrow’s e-ticket as a document of the entire trip and its surrounding services – open for changes, additions and interactions – rather than a booking confirmation.
At Amadeus, we will be making a great investment in the immediate future to adapting our services in order to more effectively help our travel agencies, in turn, develop their services. We are offering a preview of our efforts in this area in this issue of Amadeus Magazine.
Changes will also be required to meet the increased demand for “post service.” Read about how Travelpartner has succeeded in cutting costs and simultaneously improving service with the help of Amadeus Schedule Change Script and Amadeus Automation Script. An example of successful change, I think.
Travel Industry Update is what we call the annual conference that Amadeus holds in collaboration with industry players and invited speakers. The goal of the meeting is to “measure the temperature” of the industry and update ourselves for the future. Not entirely unexpectedly, Travel Industry Update this time was about change. About change as something positive and something that we should work together to try to lead rather than be led by. Most of those there, including myself, felt that the worry that has existed within the industry on the eve of coming changes has already been replaced with optimism.
So, in the midst of all this change, we look ahead, like the graduates, toward a brighter future.
Have a nice summer and Happy reading!
Janchrister Egnefors, CEO Amadeus Scandinavia
