NB: This is a viewpoint from Francois-Xavier Peers, project manager at TourismLink.
Could the European travel industry ever commit to a single, pan-European online platform that travel agents, OTAs, tour operators and suppliers would use to connect with each other?
There’s a demonstrable need for a streamlining and unifying of backend processes but the premise that a single platform could be taken up across Europe is an ambitious one.
Nonetheless, a European Commission-backed project, TourismLink is currently trying to make it a reality.
The project has attracted solid backing in the form of partnerships with ECTAA (the European Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association), HOTREC (the umbrella association of hotels, restaurants and cafes), ITH (Instituto Technologico Hotelero), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, and ZN.
According to Michel de Blust, secretary general of ECTAA, at present, tourism SMEs in Europe are seriously underachieving.
Background
The organisation had 85,000 enterprises listed in 15 EU member states around 15 years ago, but now this figure is down to 70,000 despite an increase in the number of countries to 29 and now half a billion travellers per year in the region (up from 180 million).
De Blust reckons the travel sector will always be hindered unless a means is found to facilitate the flow of information between those who sell and those who offer travel products.
There should be a "conveyor belt" approach.
The relatively low uptake of technology by some small travel businesses is partly to blame for this blockage in communication.
For instance, only 67.9% of Spanish hotels and 74% of small establishments in Italy have online booking facilities. On top of this, those which have embraced technology are likely to be doing so using software that is only compatible with a limited number of other organisations.
Until now, this is something that has been accepted as a necessary inconvenience of moving travel into the digital era but Anna Maria Torres, CEO of HOTREC, says the lack of shared systems is one of the key problems facing the hotels, guest houses, restaurants and bars her organisation represents.
So what exactly is TourismLink trying to do?
Nuts and bolts
In a nutshell, the project is a B2B platform that will allow information to be shared between travel agents, tour operators and the tourism suppliers such as hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and other small, niche businesses that are, at present, often left out of the digital supply chain.
The platform will offer three main elements: a central reservation system (CRS) that centralises all products and destinations into one database; a property management system (PMS); and channel management, allowing immediate and automatic integration and adaptation of all data.
For travel companies – on both the supply and distribution side – this will mean receiving booking notifications in real time, getting immediate updates for allotments, rate offers and supplements and a graphic booking engine that will allow direct connectivity between enterprises.
Overseen by ITH, the platform has been built using open source technology and will be compatible with the main ICT systems already being used in each country.
Torres says she expects TourismLink to be met with some scepticism; previous projects promising similar things have failed to deliver. However, she says HOTEC is on board because this time, with the backing of the European Commission, there is the possibility of real change.
With the first pilot studies under way in Valencia, one of the biggest challenge will be for the SMEs themselves, many of which already have overloaded work schedules.
The platform is currently being modified for Croatia, while Rimini in Italy will follow as the third destination in the pilot.
By the end of 2013, it is hoped that connections will have been made between these destinations and source markets including Finland, Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany.
There is a clear need for such a unifying platform, but whether or not the European travel industry will be prepared to adopt new working practices remains to be seen.
NB: This is a viewpoint from Francois-Xavier Peers, project manager at TourismLink.
NB2:Missing link image via Shutterstock.