The total online travel sales for 2012 reported at USD 162.4 billion and it will continue to show the same upward trend for 2013 as the international travel forecasted to rise at 2-3 percent annually. The prominent cause behind this progress is rise of online travel sales in emerging economies such as India, Russia, Brazil and China. The CAGR of online travel sales in these nations expected to rise between 10% and 20% over 2012-17. The travel planning today influenced by online information sources such as travel review websites; social networking websites are becoming popular very quickly. Therefore the travel agencies need to adopt better technological platform for the travellers, to meet their changing demands and successfully compete in the travel industry.
The travel agencies spend a considerable amount of money for buying and implementing travel software which helps in minimizing the cost related to manually managing operations. Thus the investment in software is tied to the travel agency’s revenues. A slight technical glitch can result not only in revenue loss but damaging the brand and customer dissatisfaction. Efficient travel software should be capable of working in hand with variety of platforms and systems which is why we see popularity of smart phones and tablets for accessing, searching and booking travel products on behalf of their customers. Some of the key features which identifies whether it is time for a travel agency to change the system or not are following:
* If a travel software has the feature of selling travel products across multiple sales channels such as B2B, B2C, B2B2C, B2B2B and Front Desk/ Call Center along with cross sell functionality.
* For hassle free online booking and better user friendly experience online booking engine is one the important feature of the travel software.
* Multi-language, Multi-geography, Multi-destination search enabled in the system.
* The software should have the functionality to administer and process all the bookings at one place through an efficient Midoffice system.
* Connectivity with GDSs, Hotel Suppliers and Payment Gateways which give the content for hotels, flights etc.
* The travel agencies should be able to manage customers and subagents centrally at one place.
* For effective control MIS and Analytical reports are important part which any travel software should be capable of delivering.
* Holiday packages are hot selling commodity travel agencies need separate module for managing predefined packages with combination of different services which can be distributed through various sales channels.
Automation, consolidation and distribution are the key ingredients for successfully running operations of any travel agency. The dynamic nature of travel industry is forcing the travel agencies to adapt to newer technologies at a faster pace. While technology is making management of travel operations simpler but when we look at other side of coin software companies need to focus on delivering the software which suits the needs of the travel agencies and reduce the risk of switching the software from one company to another.