Travel firms are sitting on a multi-million pound bonanza if they can find the ability to sell ancillary services, a new report suggests.
The joint Amadeus-Forrester white paper, titled Cross-Sell Your Way to Profit, says ancillary service sales are expected to increase by 30% over the next five years.
This is a so far "untapped opportunity", according to Amadeus, with wider industry revenues expected to grow by just 3% over the same period.
Director of the travel services business group at Amadeus, Marcos Isaac, says for every $1 billion in sales, around $25 million will be a ancillary service sold alongside the core flight, hotel, cruise or car hire product.
Key to rise in a retailer's ability to grow ancillary sales will be use of tools and technology that reach the customer outside of the purchase point of the original product, Isaac says.
Up-selling services to the customer via mobiles before, during and after a trip will become an increasingly important method, Isaac continues.
But Isaac admits that such opportunities will be dependent on the relationship between supplier of the product (and its spread of ancillary services) and also intermediaries - an issue currently being played out in the US through the American Airlines-GDS-OTA row.
So although many suppliers do not currently give their suite of additional products to intermediaries, this will change if they understand how important the role of the agent (and the relationship it has with the consumer) can be to up-sell such services.
Commission levels for agencies will also vary tremendously, with 5-10% for ferry bookings, 10-15% for car rental and hotel bookings, 10-16% for cruise bookings and 30-50% for travel insurance.
The report also speculates on what some of the more extreme ancillary services could be by 2020.
More than half of travel providers, for example, expect to have "virtual reality services" in place by 2010, helping passengers experience hotel, airports and cruise ships ahead of taking a trip.
Digital concierges appeal to many suppliers (80%) and - lucky for some - around 37% expect to provide in-journey spa treatments.
NB:Download the full report.