TravelMole interview with Ratsko Ilic, vice president of product development, Elleipsis

TravelMole interview with Ratsko Ilic, vice president of product development, Elleipsis

DW:  What is the future direction of GDS systems?

RI: If GDS companies want to play a vital role in the future, and within the travel industry specifically, GDS’s strength is going to have to be continuing to work with the airlines and get aggregated content from them.  Adding other content such as Cruises and Hotels is a very important component and we should see some kind of shift in how they are going to present themselves in this light to the travel industry. Furthermore, GDS companies are currently working to position themselves more as solution technology providers, not only a distribution channel.  For example, Amadeus recently changed their name to Amadeus IT group. They really are positioning themselves as a technology company, as a solution provider to their customers and they have to adapt their business model to better compete with the new GDS’s.

DW: What is going to happen in the travel agency business?

RI: In order for travel agencies to exist they have to be more specialized and offer additional services to their customers. For example, bringing in new technologies and staying competitive  —   especially in terms of services and pricing. There is definitely a market for travel agencies, and customers who want more complex travel options; packages, vacations and specialized hotels. Travel agencies need to have the most recent tools and offer these kinds of services to survive.

DW: Do you think the number of agents will continue to decline?

RI:  Yes. I think so. For travel agencies to stay competitive, they will probably need to have more products available for their customers so that they will be able to offer more services and be able to compete with travel sites.

DW: Do you think cruise lines are heading in the direction of doing in-house sales rather than relaying on agents?

RI: Today customers are still heavily relying on agents (for cruises). Cruise lines are giving such great commissions to travel agents in today’s travel market. I feel strongly that a big segment of the market is connected to travel agencies and customers prefer going to agencies when booking cruises rather than booking online. Furthermore, travel agents get the best deals for their customers; therefore numbers continue to go up when booking cruise line travel through agencies.

DW: What do you expect the impact of technology to be in the future of travel?

RI: The dream is to have aggregated content packages to be available and we believe we can achieve that. We also need to improve the quality of agencies and increase their sales for them to stay alive and increase the cost of distribution. The key is to offer specific needs to specific travelers. For example, if someone likes scuba diving, you would be able to find a very specific travel site that will offer that experience, including your air ticket, hotel accommodations and scuba experience.

DW: Reducing costs has been a major direction of recent travel trends, do you see that changing at all?

RI: The future direction of travel is a trend we have been seeing for some time  —   low cost and new technologies are dominating. GDS services need to invest heavily in new platforms so that they can offer reduced costs for lower distribution.

DW: Do you think systems will get less complicated and more user friendly?

RI: Yes, definitely, especially with aggregation and package contents. For example, you want to book a trip to go somewhere and a travel site and the travel agencies will be offering all the products you will need;   such as books on the destination, and other items that will be related to where you are going and what you are doing. Today, we do not even speak of these things or think about them.

DW: Looking down the road in ten years, how will the travel market will be different than it is today?

RI: The travel market will be using aggregated content on a day-to-day basis, and we will see more systems being sold on the market to travel channels. More travel sites will be specialized to meet consumer needs and there will be more niche travel destinations. I also believe we will be speaking more about technology than cost.

DW: Looking at your own company…where are you headed in the future?

RI: After working in the travel industry for over 20 years the company I work for, Elleipsis is working to provide direct access to aggregated content through technology to provide more GDS accessibility. Our direction has been in the development of two products; the first is to provide a gateway to suppliers so that air, car, hotel and cruise companies can develop their own online travel sites. The other is a product application of e-commerce that small to large agencies can implement and use our directory and travel agents can utilize our tools so that they can go out and compete and offer the right services to their customer base.

Report by David Wilkening