The Art of Search

Michael Wake,
Product Director
Search & Shopping Products Portfolio
 The Art of Search
With travel industry consolidation, the rise of metasearch, and increasingly tech-savvy consumers, search has
never played a more important role within the travel industry. This paper examines how a number of fac-
tors are driving the evolution of travel search today and in the future:

>> C
 omparison shopping by increasingly savvy travelers means search volumes are soaring and the
tools used to search, shop and book travel are becoming increasingly diverse;
>> S
 earch parameters are changing, requiring increasing customization and control. For example, the ad-
dition of inspirational search, with no preconceived
destination in mind, as a supplement to traditional fixed search;
>> B
 oth travelers and travel businesses are demanding greater quality in search results, and frustrations
regarding the volume of information presented in search are driving the need for greater relevancy and
accuracy in search results;
>> T
 echnology advances and new platforms, such as smartphones and tablets, are changing the total
travel experience from researching, shopping and booking through to check-in, boarding and arriving
at the required destination.

Fundamental to Travelports strategy, based on the requirements of its customers, is the need to continually
innovate search technology and the delivery of relevant, accurate travel options. Travelport supports its
travel agency customers by enabling them to access, in whatever way they wish, the broadest and most
relevant travel content, making it easier for them to search, shop and book. The foundation of this proposition
is the power of Travelport e-Pricing, whether accessed via an API, such as Travelport Universal API or
via a desktop solution, like Travelport Universal Desktop, Travelport Smartpoint App, Worldspan Go!
or Galileo Desktop. Travelport e-Pricing enables shopping across millions of published, negotiated,
web and advertised fares; it also provides hundreds of thousands of itinerary options in seconds with one
simple entry.

Traveler Shopping Behavior

A number of studies provide focus on the fact that airlines and online travel agency (OTA) websites, face
increased and wide-ranging competition. They require low fare search technology and tools to position
themselves as a one stop shopping destination for airline passengers and must provide a great shopping
experience by delivering a range of compelling, relevant and accurate travel options to convert lookers to
bookers and drive revenues.

A comScore Inc study1 of UK consumers found that when shopping online for travel, on average people
were shopping 22 travel sites over a period of 29 days, before they even made their first transaction. The
same study found that 34% of consumers would spend more than 8 hours trying to find the best holiday
deal with 14% even committing a whole day to the process, and some prepared to invest a days holiday to
achieve it.

The Art of Search 2

 A recent benchmark survey from Atmosphere Research Group2 on the flight-shopping habits of U.S. leisure
travelers identified the wide array of channels used and further substantiated the comScore study by
confirming that many use multiple channels and multiple options within each channel to find flight and
other travel information.
80
Calling or visiting a travel agency
70
(15%) or accessing a traditional
60 travel agencys website (15%)
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50
ranking of favored shopping
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30 airline passengers, which
demonstrates that even within
20 the context of multi-channel
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The Art of Search 3

 social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and other social networks where many airlines and travel agen-
cies are now promoting travel deals. Flash sales sites, such as Groupon, are getting in on the action as an
emerging alternative for leisure travelers looking for flight bargains. Even Google entered the scene with its
Flight Search tool which has the potential of being a threat to OTAs, who thus far have been largely exclud-
ed from its core search results.

The priority and number of each of these sources of travel information that consumers will consult will vary
among countries as well as by the individual preferences of the traveler. For example a Cognizant study3
found travelers in APAC (9%) were more likely to consult social media for research and trip planning than
European (1%) and North American (1%) travelers.

What is clear from all these studies is that within a highly competitive environment, travel planning and
research resources need to differentiate themselves by having distinct features, functionality and benefits
if they are to retain current customer and find new ones.

TMI: Too Much Information

A PhoCusWright study Empowering Inspiration: The Future of Travel Search4 found that travelers in Rus-
sia (78%), India (72%), Brazil (70%), Germany (49%), the UK (46%) and the U.S. (42%) expressed frustration
over at least one of the following factors: too much information, timeliness of the data, the lack of a way to
search for multiple destinations simultaneously, and the absence of search based on preferences.

These findings highlight the often cited customer pain about feeling baffled by information overload when
presented with irrelevant, inaccurate or unavailable flight choices. This is driving the need for interface display
techniques that are used to filter, sort and rank searches, and hide or de-prioritize what is deemed to be
unattractive. The end game of these user-interface refinements is to give the travel researcher a more
pleasant and satisfying online experience and ultimately to increase sales.

Travelport e-Pricing provides an answer to the search agony by delivering a

Optimizing Ticket Pricing
solution that takes customer control over the flight search process to a new level. to Boost Your Revenue and
Traveler Satisfaction
Travelport e-Pricing

e-Pricings foundation is a multi-server-based pricing technology that can

accommodate a search of millions of fares and thousands of itinerary options
to produce lowest available fares within seconds. It is not bound by traditional
availability processing or schedule look-up; it uses data derived from fares to
determine which carriers offer the cheapest prices and who those carriers are Meet traveler demand and
your financial goals, too SPEND LESS TIME SEARCHING AND MORE
TIME BOOKING

co-operating with to offer competitively priced travel. As a result, e-Pricing

Selecting the right shopping platform for use on all your channels can
> Receive high quality responses through a single data source
be challenging. You require flexibility, speed, and ease of use to meet
that delivers a shop-to-book experience with no variances
your revenue goals and growing customer expectations. Doesnt it across the sales process
make sense to work with the company that started it all? As the leader
> Increase traveler satisfaction by delivering more fare options
in establishing the GDS industrys first server-based shopping platform, with every inquiry
Travelport continues to invest in emerging technologies to better

often uncovers unobvious combinations of carriers, routings and fares that

> Reduce sell failures through real-time availability and fare-
service todays changing business needs.
data driven processes, delivering rapid system responses with
Travelport e-Pricing unites fares and shopping into a single data source a high degree of accuracy

to create a highly flexible tool that can be customized to suit any > Decrease call times and increase your agents productivity
airline of any size. Call center agents and online customers alike have levels so they can focus on new sales and services
the option to apply numerous qualifiers to their search for a more > Enrich the entire shopping experience by giving your agents

yield highly competitive prices. For travel agencies and airlines competing
meaningful and relevant shopping experience. With the ability to shop and online customers access to published and private fares to
millions of fares and hundreds of thousands of itinerary options in make fast, easy, informed choices
seconds, e-Pricing consistently satisfies traveler demand for the lowest
available fares.

with the gamut of other choices available to leisure and business travelers,
e-Pricing has emerged as a flexible, highly accurate and relevant low-fare
Download PDF
shopping tool.

The Art of Search 4

 Watch the video on Youtube.com

Many travelers and agents still search by a specific departure and return date when they or their clients
need to fly to a business meeting or event and the schedule is certain. Travelports e-Pricing technology
is well-established and adept in both fixed search and flexible search, with the latter displaying plentiful
alternative itineraries and fares when travel dates are not rigid. Online consumers and travel agents are able
to qualify searches by preferred carriers, airports, nonstop or direct flights, desired connections, no advance
purchase or penalty fares, and date options including multiple weekends during the month and one to three
days before or after travel dates.

This increases the relevance of the

search response by understanding
the specific needs of the traveler to
surface the most meaningful travel
options. These flexible search
options really come in handy
because they can be utilized with
or without a booked itinerary.

For Travelport, investment to

continually evolve this technology is
key to its strategy. This is evidenced
by the development of new features
such as 30-day calendar shopping,

The Art of Search 5

 which allows an online agency to display the lowest fare available for a month measured from the departure
date indicated by the traveler. Another upcoming feature is a graphical based Search Control Console, which
puts the customer in control of the parameters of air-search processing. Within the console, an agency will
be able to direct e-Pricing to return not just the lowest available price results, but return results directed to
preferred vendors, desirable connect points, and popular vendors to appeal to consumer interest. For an online
agency this can support the drive for conversion of their customers looks to books. And, for offline agencies,
the Search Control Console will enable their agents to provide superior customer service and build customer
loyalty by providing a compelling selection of relevant travel options.

The Search Control Console not only provides more personalized results and
workflow efficiency, it also greatly reduces the need for application-level coding
and fine-tunes wide-ranging search controls. Coupled with the Travelport
Universal API, which delivers inventory from a comprehensive array of low-
cost carriers, traditional airlines and non-air inventory, e-Pricing provides
agencies and airlines with a forward-looking solution positioned to take on
and respond to the rigors of todays highly competitive environment.
Travelport Universal API
Travelports ongoing investment in e-Pricing doesnt stop with the technology
One interface for all of your
it also includes the growth of a dedicated team focused on continually improving travel content needs

the air search experience with an eye towards accuracy, the speed of search,
bookability of fares and the quality of the content returned.
Boost your efficiency and time to market when building travel
applications for the Web, desktop or mobile applications

The Search for Search Enhancements Download PDF

Air search has come a long way from its earliest days when parameters, such as dates of travel, were fixed
and immoveable.

The assumption that shoppers visit websites with a clear idea of what they are looking for is no longer
validmany seek inspiration. The PhoCusWright survey4,Empowering Inspiration, picked up on the search
habits of leisure travelers - many know they want to go on vacation, but arent set on a specific destination.
About half of the survey participants
in Germany, the UK and the U.S., as
well as almost two-thirds in Russia,
India and Brazil, indicated they are
not focusing on a single destination
when they begin doing their travel
research.

So-called fuzzy search, as some

refer to it, could be an effective
way to target and inspire the
un-decideds. It is an emerging

The Art of Search 6

 form of search which is attractive to a subset of travelers, primarily for leisure trips. These travelers typically
know they want to go on a vacation, may have a budget in mind, and are open to persuasion about a
city, country, or even type of vacation activity, e.g. beach holiday, walking holiday, sailing holiday. As a
rule, fuzzy search, including recent offerings from Air France-KLM and Lufthansas Trip Finder online
tool, takes place with a map of the world as a backdrop. Aggregation of diverse travel content is at the
core of what we do and Travelport is investigating and developing fuzzy search capabilities within the
e-Pricing platform.

More than semantics

Travelports search vision has also enabled it to get actively involved in Optimizing Galileo DesktopTM
for Higher Productivity and Profits
one of the newest evolutions in search, semantic search. In semantic search, Travelport Smartpoint AppTM

travelers and agents would be able to use free text or voice commands to
search for flights instead of filling in various origin, destination or date fields
or having to use cryptic commands. Travelport is engaged in a research and
development effort with Evature, a company that provides plain language Are you ready to become more A birds-eye view: The double window layout provides an effective
reference of items currently booked on one side, and on the other side,

profitable?
translation capabilities and won several awards at PhoCusWrights November
color-coded and clickable elements help decode terms, provide more
information or simply assist with booking processes.
If youre looking for smarter and more efficient ways to increase profit
Intelligent translation capabilities: This competitive advantage lets
margins, Travelport is ready to answer your call. We have a solution that
your consultants use entries that are native to other global distribution
strengthens your most valuable assets your existing investments in
systems (GDSs). Thats right. Other GDS entries can be translated
people and technology.

2011 conference.
to perform requests and transactions in Galileo and Apollo, making

Get to know Smartpoint App

Smartpoint App a valuable tool for consultants with other system
experience.

Its easy. Travelport Smartpoint App evolves the Galileo Desktop
with dynamic and interactive technology to dramatically improve
travel consultant productivity and customer service. Through XML,
Smartpoint App infuses your desktop with a hybrid of native and point-
and-click navigation, plus graphical user interfaces all designed to
guide travel consultants through the most efficient booking processes.
A path to the future: Smartpoint App is an accelerator to Travelport
Universal DesktopTM the next generation in Travelport technology.
When the timing is right to make the move to Universal Desktop, your
staff will be familiar with smart technology (native GDS entries) and
graphical windows.

Remarkably faster processes

Travelport is testing this plain language translation capability as a proof of
Extraordinary workflow optimizer for front line and call center
operations: Smartpoint App empowers your business by building on
Smartpoint App powers up core functions to substantially reduce
how travel consultants work today. It supports GalileoTM and ApolloTM
keystrokes when shopping and booking itineraries. For example,
system commands, keyboard navigation controls, shortcuts, Quick
keystrokes for an average reservation process are reduced 15 percent
Commands and Pkeys.
and keystrokes for a fares-led low-fare search, powered by Travelport

concept in the Travelport Smartpoint App, which would enable agents to

e-Pricing, are reduced by more than 70 percent.

make a flight query such as I want to go from Paris to San Francisco next Download PDF
Thursday instead of entering a cryptic command.

This type of semantic search would bring a tremendous efficiency benefit to agencies and reduce training
costs for new agents, or experienced agents transitioning from another agency using a different GDS.
The idea is that when agents enter the plain language text using the Smartpoint App, the query would be
automatically parsed and translated into GDS shopping commands. Travelport has successfully tested
this type of semantic search as a
proof of concept and is examining
ways to fully optimize its potential
across multiple channels.

With Apples voice based

commands on the iPhone 4S and
the further evolution of semantic
search capabilities, it is a plausible
assumption that in the future
travellers could expect to be
able to speak a request into their
smartphone and be presented

The Art of Search 7

 with a range of travel options which can be booked through voice commands. In a recent global poll by
Travelport5, 88% of people believed that travel search using voice is important now and will gain momentum
and moving into the future.

1%
I believe voice search ... Number

11% Could be relevant in a few years time 68

I would take it right now 67

Might be a nice gimmick / bit of fun 17

44%
44% Will Never Catch On 2

Total responses 154

Source: (R )evolution of Search webinar attendees5

Optional services search wont be an option

If travelers vent their frustration about search-results overload or a lack of updated and accurate information,
travel agents around the world have likewise been communicating their concerns about finding ways to
efficiently cope with the increase in the number of airline optional services.

For travel agencies, airlines unbundling of optional services will increasingly become a priority in flight
search and will make the drumbeat louder for industry standards. According to a Travelport survey6 on
airline ancillary and optional services travel agents indicated that unbundling is confusing (62%) because
offerings are so different among airlines; the increased workload impacts productivity (58%), but for many
agencies seeking to remain full-service agencies, they feel they must offer these products (54%)

Travel agents surveyed in the Middle East felt the strongest (67%) that they need to offer these services,
compared with travel agents in Asia Pacific (55%), the Americas (53%), and Europe (52%).

Travelports Universal API helps to take away the pain of search and shopping for optional services since
it has the ability to return this information in a shopping request.

The Art of Search 8

 The mobile revolution and search
Meanwhile, the mobile revolution is altering the way leisure and business travelers shop for and book flights
and hotels.

U.S. mobile-empowered leisure and business travelers are using their mobile phones for a variety of
flight-related activities. Leisure travelers (44%) and business travelers (48%) used their mobile phones to
research flight options, book reservations (leisure travelers 17% and business travelers 26%), and make
changes to existing reservations (leisure travelers 12% and business travelers 20%), according to two
PhoCusWright surveys.7

Business travelers, often the most highly sought-after customers for both airlines and travel agencies alike,
are the more frequent early adopters when it comes to flight search and booking activities on mobile devices.
Clearly, as flight search develops in the coming years, the major players will have to place increased
emphasis on mobile search and mobile websites and render them compatible with an ever-increasing and
hodgepodge line-up of mobile devices and platforms.

The mobile itinerary management

tool for travellers on the go
Travelport ViewTrip Mobile TM

The power and reach
of Travelport ViewTrip
in a mobile application
Travellers use mobile devices for just about everything
these days, including travel planning and management.
Keeping up with them means a journey of your own into
the world of mobile technology. Travelport can take
you there.
Travelport ViewTrip Mobile is a mobile itinerary
management tool that works with the Travelport ViewTrip
website. To satisfy travellers on the go, ViewTrip pushes
itineraries to your customers mobile devices, offering
flexible itinerary management, service and support
across the stages of their journeys.
Best of all, ViewTrip Mobile has been designed to
integrate with your existing workflows, and theres
absolutely no cost to you or your customers.
MOBILISE YOUR SERVICES AND SUPPORT WITH
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Whether youre a subscriber of the Worldspan,
Galileo or Apollo system, you can use Travelport
ViewTrip Mobile to:
> Extend your services and support far beyond the
initial booking all within your existing workflows
> Improve value, service and customer
communications by keeping travellers informed and
satisfied with proven mobile technology
> Provide a higher quality experience that generates
loyalty and repeat business
> Improve your efficiency and productivity by letting
ViewTrip send itineraries to your customers e-mail
and mobile devices in one swift action
> Maximise policy compliance and minimise trip
disruption by providing real-time trip information
and options, complemented by timely mobile alerts

Download PDF

The Art of Search 9

 Travelport is making strides in this area, having recently launched
Travelport ViewTripTM Mobile, an app that is a secure, on-demand mobile Travelport Developer Network
itinerary management and planning tool. It provides itinerary information Enter a world of opportunity

on the move, but also the ability to search for additional flight options and
gain access to other content such as hotels and city guides. To facilitate
further growth in this area, Travelport has created the Travelport
Developer Network to support the developer community in Network
Travelport Developer its efforts to
innovate and access Travelport content via the Travelport Universal API.
Join the Travelport Developer Network now
To find out more about the Network, please visit
developer.travelport.com
If you would like your organisation to join the Travelport
Developer Network, please email
DeveloperNetwork@travelport.com

A picture of the future

2011 Travelport. All rights reserved. All Travelport logos and marks
as well as all other Travelport proprietary materials depicted herein
are the property of Travelport and/or its affiliates.
Other trademarks are property of their respective owners. DEV/1128

The long-term future of search will undoubtedly be influenced by develop-

ments which are relative seedlings today -- increased personalization
Download PDF
through heightened engagement with the customer, smart devices,
mobile location-based services, near-field communications (NFC) and biometrics, as well as semantic,
social and voice-driven search. Customers will be demanding access to an ever-widening array of suppliers,
ranging from bus, taxi and other ground transportation companies to low-cost carriers, private jets, perhaps
even spacecraft and emerging retailers with yet-unheard of business models and products.

A Portrait of Search Artistry

In summary, the evolution and art of search are continuing at break-neck speed, requiring airlines, online
travel agencies, and traditional travel agencies to partner with an air search and pricing provider which is
totally dependable, flexible, accurate, comprehensive, relevant and even inspiring. In these current times,
when so many market forces and players are vying for the sometimes fragile allegiances of leisure and
business travelers, Travelport e-Pricing is well-positioned to provide scalable solutions and to be nimble
enough to provide the cutting-edge features necessary to enhance competitiveness and to drive increased
conversions and revenue.

The Art of Search 10

 References
1. Google and comScore Inc Survey 2007

2 U.S. Online Leisure Travel Benchmark Survey, Atmosphere Research Group, Q4 2011

3 Airline Travelers Experience Survey: Analysis and Insights, Cognizant, 2011.

4 Empowering Inspiration: The Future of Travel Search, PhoCusWright, February 2012

5 Travelport Poll at (R)evolution of Search Webinar in partnership with TNooz 22nd March 2012.
The opinion of a global audience of 256 attendees

6 Travel Agencies Worldwide Share Their Views on the New Era of Airline Ancillary and Optional
Services, Travelport, January 2012

7 PhoCusWrights Traveler Technology Survey 2011 and PhoCusWrights Business Traveler Survey 2011

The Art of Search 11

 Copyright Travelport 2012