Creative evolves to stay in the game
Creative Holidays will undergo the most critical transformation in its 30-year history later this year as it fights to stay relevant in a cluttered, competitive market.
The wholesaler will move off the Calypso booking system in November and shift to a web-based platform that will feature a broader range of product, dynamic pricing and the ability for agents to dynamically package.
The upheaval will effectively see Creative expand beyond its traditional roots and move into the online space to compete with a growing number of web competitors.
To do nothing and remain purely a traditional brochure-only wholesaler with static pricing and limited content would have potentially damaging implications, managing director Paul McGrath said.
Speaking exclusively to Travel Today at The Travel Corporation’s Bondi Junction head office, McGrath acknowledged that Creative needed to evolve.
He said it would become a “hybrid” operation – offering static rates and packages as it has done for years but also move into the online arena with the flexibility to cater and respond to the demands and needs of consumers and agents.
“It’s a challenging market, it’s very challenging,” McGrath said. “When we moved to Calypso in 2002 it was a massive change but the market was orderly back then. The web was not really around. Online travel agents were not around.
“But the market now is no longer orderly. There are far more competitors in our space than there has ever been and because the market is so busy we have to make it as easy for agents as possible.”
The new web-based technology will be powered by UK-based Travel Studios with the transition requiring “significant investment”.
While Calypso had served Creative “incredibly well” for 10 years, the system had limitations in its ability to provide rich content and flexible pricing, McGrath said.
“The world has changed very quickly and we need to keep pace with that, especially with competition from online travel agents,” he explained. “The market has moved into dynamic pricing and we needed to give consultants access to that.
“Dynamic pricing was difficult for us to manage within Calypso. The only way you can get and manage dynamic pricing effectively is to have a connection to either a hotel directly or a hotel aggregator or channel manager.
"This new platform will enable us to do that."
Flights will also form an integral part of the offering with Creative able to offer carriers and fares that are on Global Distribution Systems as well as its own wholesale fares it negotiates with airlines.
“Our aim is to bring more air to the game and with this new application we’ll bring more airfares and carriers and destinations to the market,” McGrath said.
Moving to a web-based platform will also provide Creative with the ability to display a far greater variety of non-brochured product in a way that resonates in today’s online world.
“Agents have a plethora of product to understand and sure, a brochure serves a purpose well. But if they can see not just two images but several of a hotel and its rooms types and its location, and all with updated rates…that’s the space we need to be in."
Among the new content will be maps, greater imagery, deeper destination information and a far wider choice of product.
Creative has struck deals with hotel aggregators and is in talks directly with major hotel chains over providing inventory and dynamic rates.
“We will have a lot more product available to consultants online in destinations that we would not usually contract because of the cost of doing that,” McGrath continued.
He cited New York as an example where in addition to its centrally contracted hotels in Manhattan, Creative will now offer properties in the Bronx and Queens.
“What that provides us is a greater range of product that is comparable to any OTA in the market place. But what we have in addition to anyone else is static product.”
McGrath said those static rates will continue to cater for consumers who want to thumb though a brochure and select a traditional package where hotels may have value adds and bonuses that are not generally available with dynamic rates.
Equally, there are consumers who are content to bowl up to a travel agent and want to book immediately – which is where dynamic rates come into their own.
“An increasing number of agents are using OTA’s because the customer is coming in and saying ‘I have got this price, can you match it’. We hear that all the time.
“We need to be at the forefront of the agents’ mind when they book that client’s holiday.”
The web technology will also increase Creative’s speed to market, something traditional wholesalers have struggled with, McGrath said.
“It is no good anymore delivering something in 24 hours. You have to turn it round in two hours to be competitive,” he said. “If an airline brings out an airfare we have to be out there straight away, as does the agent.
“A consumer may see that fare on the airline website, walk into a travel agency and if you are there with it, you’ll get the sale.
“The time to market has reduced, and continues to reduce, and that’s a challenge when you are working in a traditional way. Technology will allow us to do things smarter and quicker.”
McGrath continued: “I believe we are creating a new blended model where we offer the best of both worlds.
“Every OTA throws around that we have 100,000 hotels but that’s just the starting point. That’s just to be in the game.
“We will have that but we’ll also have hand picked product and have a direct relationship with a hotel that we know consumers actually want to book based on our 30 years of experience.
“We’ll also have car hire, airfares and rail. We will be the one-stop shop for travel agents.”
Stay tuned, part 2 will appear in Monday's issue of Travel Today.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
creative holidays online travel paul mcgrath wholesale wholesalersLatest News
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