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Travelers are sovereign by 2008 with the help of new technologies

by Patrick Totty
 

Travelers making plans in the year 2008 will be assisted by powerful technologies that were already on the scene in 2001.

They’ll be looking at Web-based information providers that allow them to make very complex travel arrangements from their desktops, including the ability to explore all providers of any travel services.

Currently, travelers can access large web sites like Travelocity and Orbitz to view menus of travel information, such as air fares and travel packages. This is a big improvement over the former practice of consulting travel agents who might represent only one airline or a small group of travel packagers.

But these big sites, though immensely convenient for many travelers, are still limited in that they continue to front for only a small number of travel providers.

By 2008, though, travelers will be able to view any information they can think to ask for. This will happen thanks to a combination of advances in hardware, software and marketing savvy among the travel industry’s smaller, more specialized suppliers.

Increased broadband (the capacity of cable or phone lines to carry huge amounts of information), along with increasingly sophisticated databases, will be connected to web sites that list all airlines, tour operators, travel agents, hotels, car rental companies and other travel-related services.

Because of these new sites’ power and inclusiveness, travel agents will enjoy a resurgence as they begin to advise travelers on how to navigate these sites or offer to do the navigating for them.

The new sites will help lower travel costs by forcing commodity suppliers of air travel, accommodations and car rentals to submit to direct comparisons by consumers. They will also allow smaller suppliers to compete on a more equal footing with larger competitors by affording them an opportunity to be seen by consumers.