Worldspan: Trip Manager's Future Under Review

Worldspan's new management is reconsidering the direction of its corporate online booking product, Trip Manager, following a few years of questions about whether and how much to invest in it.

Speaking last month with Business Travel News editors, Worldspan chairman, president and CEO Rakesh Gangwal said, "Our new management is looking at everything the company does. We have some enormous strengths, and there are certain areas where we need to rethink where we are going, so Trip Manager falls into that category. Now the issue is, what are the functionalities we need to put into Trip Manager that, combined with your normal travel agency, makes a very powerful product? That's the thought process and it's still an open issue right now."

Gangwal said there was one thing he knows about Trip Manager: "We don't see it as a so-called beachhead to becoming a travel agency," a strategy his major competitors are taking. Sabre is leveraging GetThere technology as part of Travelocity Business and Cendant is building on its Highwire booking tool for its Travelport full-service offering.