18 September 2014 | travelweekly.co.uk business Essential news, comment and analysis TOP STORY


David Stevenson: ‘Travel firms should build their own platforms on top of the search giant’s architecture’


WEB GIANT COULD TURN TIDE ONOTAs


GOOGLE IS ON THE WAY TO


TRANSFORMING DIGITAL TRAVEL, POSING A MAJOR


THREAT TO ONLINE TRAVEL AGENTS,


SAYS TRAVEL WEEKLY CITY INSIDER


DAVID STEVENSON


Could travel turn into a digital product controlled by a single dominant player – like Amazon in publishing? Until recently I’d have laughed at this suggestion. Yet big changes are afoot and we may end up in a market where Google has a dangerously powerful position. In the days before the internet,


we welcomed the choice and variety on the high street. In the digital age, we welcome lots of brands producing varying products, but we actually only want a few channels to market. No one takes pleasure in shopping in the digital ‘mall’, unlike real malls where there are


72 • travelweekly.co.uk — 18 September 2014


coffee shops and fun places to visit. So the internet has a history of drastically reducing the avenues of distribution and eventually producing one or two omnipotent distributors – Amazon is that channel in books. What makes me think Google could assume that role in travel? Cue my conversation with a major venture capitalist, an investor in Amazon, whose view is simple – Google wants to rip apart the existing digital travel model and create a new architecture, with it and TripAdvisor at the top. Travel is disjointed and


profoundly annoying for the consumer. Every day I see


multiple emails from the likes of Tripit, Hotels.com, Groupon and TripAdvisor. What if Google could control the flow of offers and personalise them? Papers by US advisory firm


Evercore, written by Ken Seda and colleagues, map out what Google may be up to and why online travel agents (OTAs), in particular, have a great deal to fear.


Google’s plans The most recent report, entitled ‘Google’s Travel Plans in a Post- Atomic Era’, sees Evercore argue that Google has decided to take


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