What is the Live Travel Space? It’s all about energy and growth

Whether you prefer living like a local or five-star luxury – the journey of your choice is only a few clicks away, personalized down to the type of welcome drink you want upon arrival to the hotel.

Technology is the main driver behind this change. New ways of working and connecting are opening up possibilities for travelers and the brands that serve them. With new innovations and players entering the marketplace, travel companies are facing pressure on many fronts. They are competing fiercely to attract a traveler that is less loyal than ever before.

As the industry evolves rapidly, so do we. To meet the fast-changing needs of our customers, we are evolving from a Global Distribution System (GDS) to a Live Travel Space. We are building an open, dynamic, and connected space where all industry players can join and collaborate to deliver memorable journeys. It’s a space for our customers to grow with solutions that are tailored to the way they do business and serve travelers.

We believe we are uniquely positioned to lead this change and build this space because of our people and our technology. We are more than 5,600 professionals of different backgrounds with presence in over 190 countries. But there is something we all have in common: our passion for travel and technology, our recognized expertise, and our desire to tackle complex challenges to provide the best service to our customers.

We have invested over €5 billion in R&D in the past few years, which on average is 16% of our annual revenue, to improve our technology, advance open source systems, big data and cloud-based architecture. We are evolving our travel platform so all of our customers can access more content, including ground transport and destination services, via more channels and devices, helping them remain competitive and sell travel in an efficient and personalized way. We are driving the industrialization of NDC with a dedicated program to ensure success for all travel players. Airlines like Qantas and travel agents such as Travix and Flight Centre have recently joined our NDC-enabled travel platform.

We know the travel industry is getting more complex and our customers are becoming more specialized to better serve travelers. That’s why our Travel Channels division is moving from a geography-led to a customer-led approach. We have created four key segments (Retail, Online, Business Travel and Corporations) to deliver on the needs of our customer base with more personalized solutions and a faster time to market. 

Ultimately, we want to help our customers differentiate themselves so they can grow their business and create more value for every traveler. That’s what the Live Travel Space is about: growth and opportunity. And we welcome every player in the industry to join!

This is part of our Live Travel Space series, where we’ll talk in detail about all the changes we’re making to bring us closer than ever to our customers, and become more open, dynamic, and connected by evolving from a Global Distribution System (GDS) to a Live Travel Space.