Some online booking tools in the past two years have vastly expanded their global footprints as they add content, develop new language versions, adapt to local currencies, feed into travel management company online fulfillment operations and leverage consumer online behavior in emerging markets.
While some of the largest Western multinational corporations are pushing the self-booking tools into these new areas, challenges still remain. Adoption levels in many markets remain suppressed by such barriers as content fragmentation, government regulations and the inability to pay online. In addition, in such countries as India, the cost difference between an online and an offline transaction is too minimal to effect real behavioral change.
GetThere in the past 18 months has implemented versions of its tool in 19 countries, including the burgeoning business travel markets of India, Russia and South Africa, and emerging markets like Algeria, Guatemala, Pakistan and Qatar. GetThere now processes online transactions originating in 76 countries and plans to add local-language versions for China and Japan by year-end, according to GetThere president Chris Kroeger.
Amadeus E-Travel Management is used by corporations from 47 countries. Since 2007, it expanded the tool to 32 new markets, primarily in Asia/Pacific and the Middle East, where the company plans to roll out an Arabic-language version in early 2010, said Amadeus vice president of business and corporate travel Albert Pozo. While the company has made strides in bringing on major markets, including China, India and Japan, it also added such markets as Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, where online booking is in its earliest days.
Cliqbook, which company officials said processes at least some level of online travel transactions in more than 90 countries, now has 14 different language versions of the tool. In the past year, the company has revamped the tool in Australia, Mexico and New Zealand, and continues to spread its presence in Europe and Asia/Pacific. The company plans to add one new market annually, said Concur executive vice president of technology Tom DePasquale.
Egencia now has 14 points of sale, after expanding to India and Switzerland last November. The travel management company also began to offer its online booking platform in China at the end of 2007. Egencia already had local fulfillment operational infrastructure set up through Chinese online travel agency ELong, in which Expedia has a majority ownership stake.
Travelocity Business can now process transactions in Asia/Pacific markets, including India, Korea and Singapore, via Travelocity-owned leisure site Zuji.
Much of the new market push has come from multinationals wanting to reduce costs, gain economies of scale and create process consistency across their organizations. While online booking tools have expanded their inventory and adapted user interfaces for local markets, travel management companies also have done some of their own work.
"In smaller markets, it is very difficult to put together dedicated online fulfillment organizations," according to Carlson Wagonlit Travel president of suppliers, products and technology Andrew Winterton. "Our multinational service center configuration has allowed for deployments into substantially smaller markets than normal in a cost-effective way by centralizing the e-fulfillment aspects."
At times, the cost-efficiency of a cross-border booking is erased as its touchlessness diminishes because of the additional oversight and rework required, especially for transactions booked in one part of the world but fulfilled thousands of miles away.
"The service configuration dictates how that tool is configured to accommodate that country," said BCD Travel vice president of online technology solutions Ross Atkinson. "I am always really cautious about using just a number of countries as a benchmark because there are ways to use the technologies in other countries based on optimized service configurations."
Although the global online booking tool providers continue to deliver capabilities for new markets, until there are significant business travel volumes in these markets, the addition of new countries could be irrelevant. "You get hit by the law of diminishing returns," Winterton said. "If you look at business travel, 20 markets are covering a huge amount of the volume. The real return will be coming out of those markets."
Even though some online booking tool providers have pushed the envelope by entering emerging business travel markets, for the most part only the largest multinational corporations, such as General Electric, Cisco and Oracle, have achieved real traction among local employees in their efforts to standardize business operations globally.
Prior to its 2008 acquisition by Ingersoll-Rand, all U.S. heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems manufacturer Trane's European operating countries used an online booking tool based on a Belgian point of sale, according to global travel and meeting services director Pascal Struyve.
The company since has reversed course, as adoption in some countries was limited and some local content sparse. Ingersoll-Rand now is implementing an overhauled European travel program as part of a 50-country global program.
"On paper, it looks like a good idea because you have consistency in your program, an online booking tool in all countries, so there is no difference or discussion of why someone doesn't have something their neighbor has, but you are creating a lot of issues from a content point of view and from fare availability," said Struyve. "While it may make sense from an operational point of view, it doesn't make any sense for the bottom line."
Today, only countries with critical volumes, proper technological infrastructure and a return on investment value proposition will be given a self-booking tool. That amounts to about 75 percent of the company's travel volume or 40 percent of the 50-country portfolio, including China, where Ingersoll-Rand is deploying BCD Travel's local proprietary tool. Online booking tools have been scrapped for now in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Although entry into a new market can give an online booking tool provider a feather in their request-for-proposals cap, it doesn't mean that market is ready. Several sources pointed out that availability and adoption aren't the same. For example, Amadeus' Pozo said the tool has been available in Eastern Europe for years, but "the level of adoption of those tools remains disappointing in some of these markets. The main objective in Eastern Europe has been to push the adoption of the tools rather than entering markets."
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