<I>Miami</I> - The United States Travel Agent Registry is about to begin evaluating bids on its RFP for technology companies to develop an alternative booking, ticketing and settlement system, to be operated by and for travel agents rather than by the GDS.
Within 18 months, the group hopes to begin using an agency-owned system to handle the parts of the travel distribution system that today are done through CRSs and through the Airlines Reporting Corp., USTAR president Bruce Bishins told delegates at the Travel Technology Association meeting here last month.
More than 200 travel agencies already have signed up for USTAR's Genesis Project, a not-for-profit endeavor designed to give agents control of their own distribution network. "What we're building is not just an alternative CRS, but a completely new distribution platform for agencies," Bishins said.
In a distribution channel that includes 36,000 travel agencies, "it's outrageous that the only thing we can settle is air and rail," Bishins said. "It's time to break free from ARC and the CRSs. Why should agencies contribute to the bottom line of the CRSs when they turn around in a Judas mode and connect to the very customer base that travel agents need to meet their productivity agreements? "
Pricing Based On Net Segments
USTAR's lengthy technology RFP was distributed to about 100 suppliers, who could bid on the entire system or on such individual pieces as reservations and ticketing, settlement and banking, network communications, and connectivity software and hardware. Winners will be announced by early summer, and Bishins plans to roll out a complete system within 18 months.
Once the new system is distributed, USTAR will then price its services based on net segments, rather than on "nickel and diming" agencies for every transaction, as CRS pricing works today, Bishins said. Agency subscribers would need their own hardware--a minimum requirement of 486 computers with 16 megabytes of RAM and a complete Windows, point-and-click environment--although a 1996 American Society of Travel Agents survey found that 55 percent of agencies already use PCs, Bishins said.
Funding for Project Genesis will come from fees paid by a projected 1,000 agencies in the first year, as well as from industry suppliers. USTAR will meet with chief executives of that segment in Mexico City on Sept. 25 in hopes of building support.
Hotel, Car Cos. Expected To Benefit
Hotels and car rental companies, which have long struggled with the limits imposed by CRS systems created to sell airline seats, are probably the most interested in what USTAR has to offer, along with the airlines that do not own a CRS.
In all, travel suppliers are paying $4 or $5 billion a year in CRS fees--a figure USTAR plans to cut by 33 to 50 percent. Fees charged by GETS, a non-profit CRS operated by French telecommunications company SITA, run about half those of for-profit CRSs, said Bishins.
USTAR member agencies would pay about $100 per month, with some variation based on the number of CRT terminal addresses required, with no productivity requirements, and would get credit for transactions that could be used to offset the cost of that fee.
Five percent of USTAR will be airline-owned, so all carriers will be required to supply information and functionality to USTAR under a 1992 Department of Transportation ruling that mandates that airlines with CRSs must participate in other airline CRSs.
Charter members of USTAR who pay a minimum of $50 by Aug. 1 will enjoy a variety of savings and benefits once the USTAR is up and running.
More information on USTAR is accessible on the World Wide Web at http://www.ustar.com, or by sending e-mail to
[email protected].