Amadeus CEO on how to manage the speed of innovation in travel

Balancing the need to provide better and more services for consumers while maintaining data security and exploring new technologies is one of the biggest challenges facing travel companies today.

That was the message from Amadeus president and CEO Luis Maroto during an interview at the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Global Summit in Seville, Spain, yesterday.

Maroto says Amadeus processes about six million transactions every minute – and that pace is “increasing exponentially.”

“Travelers are connected and are demanding all the time additional information and content. We need to respond to these needs,” he says.

“At the same time keeping up with this technology and keeping the security... and then privacy... because in the end the traveler needs to know what we are doing with all this amount of information.”

Maroto says a critical piece of the solution is hiring employees with the right skills to help the company evolve for the future.

“It’s not so easy to really address that and to find the right people,” he says. "Everybody is fighting for talent. It’s a worldwide issue.”

Maroto says the staffing solution requires a three-prong approach: internal programs to educate and retrain current employees on new technologies and needs; the academic community staying abreast of new trends to ensure they are training people to fill market needs; and the public sector to boost education.

Regarding new technologies, Maroto says it is important to remember that “technology is a means to an end,” which is to serve the needs of travelers.

Amadeus is currently exploring artificial intelligence to improve revenue management, sales capabilities and personalization.

Blockchain is also a technology Maroto believes has potential to improve the industry.

“You won’t apply blockchain for everything. We need to find the areas where the technology is going to be valuable,” he says.

“We have started with some pilots in baggage tracking, where in our view the sharing of information and the technology of blockchain could be valuable. We are also having some pilots in loyalty.”