Travel industry collaboration needed to reduce friction

Travel planning and booking at the touch of a button.

It’s an idea that’s been talked about in the context of artificial intelligence travel planning, the connected trip and data sharing. 

“I think now the focus of the innovation is around bringing this idea that the traveler is buying trips, and we need to have a connected trip, and we need to make things simpler,” said Decius Valmorbida, president of travel at Amadeus, during a Center Stage interview at The Phocuswright Conference.

But there’s a problem: Many industries, Valmorbida said, have gone through the process of simplifying and have seen external disruption.

“I think that is the focus of everyone here on how we as a travel industry build that solution and it requires collaboration, because it is a big ecosystem,” he said. “So I think AI … it is important because it is the means to an end, but I think the end is customer-centricity.”

For the travel industry as a whole, removing friction and leaving customers satisfied is the real goal. The competition is not with players in the industry. The real contest, he said, is for the consumer wallet. There are plenty of ways to spend money. He gave examples: On a vacation, on an electric vehicle, on home refurbishment. The list goes on.

So, the travel industry as a whole needs to deliver the best experience possible, not just each individual company.

“What makes it very difficult is [that] it is a very fragmented ecosystem,” Valmorbida said. “So we’re talking about tens of thousands of travel sellers. We’re talking about thousands of airlines, thousands of airports. So … how are we going to, as an industry, adopt that technology at the same pace, so that customers see a difference?”

Valmorbida also touched on adoption of AI, investments into AI, return on investment of AI and more in a center stage session at The Phocuswright Conference.

Watch the full interview with Phocuswright managing director Pete Comeau below.

Later Valmorbida joined PhocusWire executive editor Linda Fox in the PhocusWire Studio to discuss the shape of the airline distribution landscape in six months as well as AI down the road.