Sabre vs Direct Connect – The Iliad And The Odyssey
The travel distribution debate continues to provide much to ponder for all concerned, and it's entertaining to boot -- see thebeat article below. While there is no doubt that the GDS model is in need of radical re-invention, it is also clear that the direct connect model and its variations, requires significant analysis and design. That said, it does all a disservice to paint the GDS as the Voldermort of the travel marketplace. The market is extremely complex, though crying out for simplification; the marketplace is still mostly a legacy of 1960s technologies and business models, though crying out for innovation. Yet, if it were driven solely by a handful of powerful suppliers and disenfranchised customers (travelers, not travel agents), we would have seen much more change over the last…