Sounding Off: Change can't come until you understand how

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered by PhocusWire that week.

Some might dismiss Sabre boss Sean Menke’s comment on the need to understand what is required in the drive for change.

They might think that he would obviously say that as a technology vendor, but they’d be forgetting that he was formerly an airline guy who has a decent understanding of both sides.

Yes, Sabre is an intermediary in a very fragmented travel distribution landscape and while there continues to be much debate about the value of intermediaries, there’s the bigger picture to be considered.

The travel industry, more widely, does not have a great track record when it comes to managing change - often the technology is blamed, often the lack of collaboration and willingness to share and/or thin margins also shoulder some of the responsibility.

But, what often seems to be forgotten is how complex selling and distributing travel is. Many startups have come in, expressing frustration at how things are done, yet few have managed to make much impact.

This isn’t just an airline-GDS thing, hospitality and the online travel world in general could be accused of being so desirous of change, but perhaps not enough deeper thinking is being carried out on what is actually realistic.

Can what is being promised really be achieved, at what cost and in what time frame?

The pandemic is bringing these challenges into the spotlight like never before.

Menke is talking about change in the distribution landscape but in the same interview he talks about how this all shakes out and what the full impact might be for airlines, travel agents and booking technology.

Nobody escapes unscathed here.

Organizations no longer have a choice but to get their heads around what is required to change. Change is happening, they must accept that and make ready for it.