Innovation in Travel Distribution?
The travel distribution wars continue, and it seems like everybody is competing with everyone else: legacy travel agencies versus online travel agents, airlines versus GDSs, GDSs versus online aggregators, GDSs versus search engines, search engines versus social networks. Some would say this is just a sign of vibrant competition within a highly dynamic industry. And, it is. So, while its admirable for all concerned to want to protect and expand their current markets, maintaining the status quo is a false choice. History is littered with the corporate corpses of those that failed to innovate in response to an ever-changing market, fickle consumers and brutal competitive pressures. Think BlockBuster versus Netflix, Atari versus Nintendo, Habitat versus IKEA, Polariod and Kodak versus smartphones. So, there's an interesting slant on this from Chicke…