_ Erick Morazin: GDS have the attribute that they are unavoidable today in the traditional schema of suppliers to the tourism industry - travel agencies. In the beginning, this schema was reserved to travel agencies that combined flights with car rental and hotel stays. In addition there is a diversification in the traditional leisure travel agencies. However, in some countries, GDS have never been very active on the leisure market, notably since the particular supply of hotels and car rentals were not very accessible. They were only essential for flights. New online leisure distribution schemas have largely profited the leisure segment; the GDS remains unavoidable, though its outlets bring to it an additional supply that it negotiates directly with suppliers.Today, we all distribute the same thing though its everyday use is collapsing. To each their diversification.There was a rupture between traditional agencies and online agencies. Despite this, GDS managed to position themselves on the two markets. And paradoxically, where they are no longer owners of traditional travel agencies, they have become so for the online sector (Galileo acquired the Orbitz portal this year). Up till now, we have been unavoidable as a supplier of technology, but now this is also true with distribution.HTR : And more precicely, what is the strategy of Galileo in the face of these changes? _ E.M.: The French market is traditionally hostile towards Galileo, which is nonetheless the leader in Germany, Italy, Holland, and Belgium. We must therefore be creative, so as to have the opportunity to compete with the leader, notably on the leisure market. The idea is to combine our three functions: supplier of technology, supplier of content, and supplier of solutions. Our belonging to the American group, Cendant, will help us in this sense. GDS can no longer isolate themselves from major shifts in the industry. Galileo is henceforth a separate entity from the Cendant Group.HTR : To what degree is has your belonging to the Cendant Group influenced your actions? _ E.M.: The group has a strong acquisition policy in the domain of tourism, which allows us to create synergies. It will therefore integrate Flairview, specialist in the creation of hotel content targeting the general public, and distributed online via hotelclub. com and ratestogo.com. We now have the opportunity to offer this content to our agencies. This is a benefit for Cendant, which therefore distributes its hotels in addition an entire group of independent two-star and three-star hotels. Likewise, the acquisition of the RCI Holiday Network by the group has allowed us to offer agencies an entire range of rental villas and apartments. Diversification is underway. All that is missing now for us is a large European online sales outlet.HTR : What does hotel distribution represent for Galileo? _ E.M.: This is around 4% of the total number of our transactions, with scores higher than the leading markets, notably oriented on business tourism. However, I think that the market share should increase with the beginning of the zero commission for airline companies, since there will be a desire of travel agencies to increase revenue by selling more products. The development of products that are specific to the hotel industry should also facilitate movement. The 8,500 hotels of Flairview were gathered together into a new tool called, Galileo HotelClub. They are totally complementary with the traditional GDS hotel supply. And moreover the services of the hotels have a level of detail much greater, with photos, a presentation, the location on a map, and even consumer opinion. We have adapted B2C to B2B.HTR : How do you envision the future? _ E.M.: This is a profession that is suffering; the travel agency will be thrown into question. Some even ask whether it is worth keeping a GDS. This is why we stress the leisure supply, since the internet attracts an increasingly greater share of the entire transportation market (flights, and train tickets). The added value of the agency is elsewhere. This is a new given that is a real problem for suppliers as well. For us, the challenge is enormous; when one begins to avoid an unavoidable tool, one beings to consider removing it altogether. The GDS profession as we have known it in the past is reaching an end. We can no longer compare Sabre, Galileo and Amadeus. Each one will follow a different strategic route.
