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By MARK FRARY


TMCs rely on for their reports to their clients and their internal management is generated.” Pat McDonagh is CEO of Clarity Travel


Management, which announced, along with Click Travel, the creation of NDC-enabled direct connects with Lufthansa in April. He says: “If NDC is delivered without the GDS, how do you make sure the workflows within the TMC are efficient enough to ensure you can offer the pricing the client is looking for from a transaction fee? “We have a choice. You can say it was


much easier when things were all done through the GDS, or we can look at what this means and be part of the early stages of adoption of things like NDC and


BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM


direct connect, and see how it is going to work. It might be that it doesn’t work without the GDS.”


CONTENT IS KING There is an argument that GDSs have already begun moving along the road to- wards NDC or offering a NDC-like range of rich content. “All of the GDSs, in some form or another, are embracing API distribution, personalisation and merchandising, and they recognise that content is king,” says Tilstone. “If they don’t have the right con- tent, what are they to anyone?” Travelport’s Broughton says: “Any so- called ‘direct connect’ can be managed


through our platform in the same workflow. Booking travel has changed significantly over the years. The TMCs have asked us to deliver the broadest and most relevant content for their business and end-user corporate travellers. They expect us to be able to aggregate content from multiple sources: ATPCO (the Airline Tariff Publish- ing Company), direct connect and NDC, and to normalise and present this wide content through our platform to provide access for their needs.” Travelport is not anti-change, says Brough-


ton. “Done correctly, intelligent automation will help drive high travel performance to free up more travel consultancy time to do


BBT July/August 2017 33


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