What will determine the future of distribution in the next 3-5 years in the Russian tourism market? Will global trends influence us, or will we, as always, follow our own path? Market experts discussed these and many other questions during the panel discussion "Global Changing distribution channels for tourism services”, which attracted a lot of attention from visitors to the OTDYKH Travel Technology conference.
Photo by Dmitry Plisov
The following took part in the discussion:
- Grach Muradyan, Head of IT Projects at Amadeus Russia;
- Tatyana Merkulova, Vice President and Commercial Director of the Transport Clearing House;
- Ilya Kravtsov, director of B2B.Ostrovok.ru;
- Alexander Ladygin, founder of Rent a Ride;
- Anatoly Kuryumov, CEO of Raketa.travel;
- Inna Beltyukova, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inna Tour.
Victoria Kizimova, section moderator and CEO of My Agent, summarizes the discussion.
Everyone is concerned about how and what customers will buy, and how they need to change to avoid going out of business. Identifying the key global trends and challenges, the discussion participants noted the following:
- Convenience is becoming the new religionProfessional market participants and travel agents are looking for easy-to-use and content-rich solutions. Therefore, now is the time for growth in B2B booking platforms.
- Suppliers want to be as close to the customer as possibleSometimes this means that providers want to directly sell their content to end users, as when hotels increase their spending on promoting direct bookings. In other cases, providers change their technologies to deliver the full range of their capabilities to customers. A great example is the implementation of the NDC protocol in aviation, where airlines and agents communicate host-to-host without data loss.
Entry of non-tourism competitors into the marketBanks, for example, have discovered the opportunity to attract customers to their own products by selling travel services at discounted prices.
All speakers agreed that B2B sales channels in Russia represent a significant share, and for some travel service providers, they are the primary channel. Convenient B2B online tools will continue to evolve, including adding new products, such as: multimodal transportationJust yesterday, it was hard to imagine being able to book travel on two or three modes of transport simultaneously in a single interface and ticket. Now, such complex products are becoming a reality.
Discussing the need for every travel services market participant to utilize the latest technologies in product creation and sales, experts agreed that mastering technology is now the preserve of major players. Knowing, being able to use, and renting such technologies is another recipe for success today. "Leaning" on the leader Whether to create dynamic packages or gain unified access to all airline NDCs at once, everyone decides for themselves. Being closer to your customers and focusing on your value to them is the recipe for success forever.
Source: trn-news.ru