Unlocking NDC success

NDC is one of the biggest topics in the travel industry right now and we want to help agencies understand and simplify it. As the year comes to a close, here are the key takeaways from our recent session at The Phocuswright Conference covering the current NDC landscape and how AI can play a pivotal role in managing it.

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS

1 – CHOICE OVERLOAD DRIVEN BY NDC

NDC has expanded the range of travel content available out there. We estimate that the number of air travel options has risen from about 500 economy/business options in 2010 to over 10,000 options in 2024 (economy, economy plus, flexi-family, business, first, etc.). That’s an incredible 1,900% increase.

And that should mean every traveler is catered to, right? Kind of, but there’s a downside too. With all this choice comes more confusion for shoppers. Travelport research found that customers are now spending over four hours shopping and comparing options before clicking ‘buy’.

In fact, 58% of travelers say the number of choices (fares, bundles, brands) is overwhelming. This shows that more choice doesn’t always mean a better experience for customers.

2 – CUSTOMERS NEED A FAST, FRICTIONLESS, TRANSPARENT SERVICE

So, what DO they need? Well, in a nutshell, they need more help assessing options and more support managing their trips. The truth is, travelers don’t know or care what NDC is, and they shouldn’t need to know either. They care about getting a convenient flight time, knowing their baggage options, and making changes to a booking if needed.

Solving for those needs, concerns, and questions is what modern retailing is all about. True modern retailing puts the customer first. Agencies who understand their customers’ needs, inside out are best placed to offer both the right combination of options and curation that they need. And that can be possible using an agnostic marketplace technology that cuts through that huge volume of content — from any and all sources.

But where does that modern retailing journey start?

Firstly, it starts with search. A good search experience assists customers in finding the right products or offers quickly and at the right price. And it balances what’s best for them and the agency. More offers from more sources means search times are getting slower, and the process itself is becoming more and more complicated. And let’s face it, time lost scrolling is extra time the customer has to wait.

Next is the sale. Customers need to see exactly what they’re buying, with the ability to easily add on any extras and find everything in one place. To enable this, agencies need transparent selling techniques, supported by modern retailing tools. These tools provide agents with enriched information on offers and facilitate upselling and cross-selling, ultimately increasing revenue and ensuring customers feel they’ve made the best choice.

Then there’s the post-purchase. Customers expect hassle-free changes or support if they need to amend a booking. Think of the last time you experienced great customer service when seamlessly changing a booking — it’s the same for travelers, especially when it comes to often expensive and important travel plans. Great service is what customers really remember. And happy, satisfied customers are more likely to return for more.

3 – AI IS HERE TO HELP CURATE CONTENT AND EARN YOU MORE

We all know that AI has been a big topic in 2024. In travel, most of the focus so far has been on what it can do for customer service. At Travelport, we’ve got even more to offer in the realm of supporting smarter searches and helping agencies earn more.

During the breakout session, we shared more about our new AI-powered search tools, Content Curation Layer and Content Optimizer. These tools can help with the current challenges presented by NDC and the resulting explosion of content choice — and the impact this is having on agencies and travelers alike.

Content Curation Layer is a powerful search functionality that helps cut down search time and provide exactly what an agent needs. With the help of AI, it can trawl through all the options and pre-filter them, so you don’t have to. This gives agencies access to refined results for billions of trip options, providing the best offers from both traditional (GDS) and NDC channels in one place from a single search.

While Content Curation Layer is about adding that layer of relevance and intelligence, Content Optimizer allows agents to build their own layer of smart controls on top of that. It gives agents the power to control what results are shown to customers, so the most profitable offers appear first from traditional air and NDC offers.

That way, agents can quickly and easily build rules for long- and short-term campaigns, meaning the traveler is getting the right offer at the right time. Plus, there are new NDC-specific capabilities that include content preference rules and response time controls.

And so, a final note on NDC…

NDC is one of the newer content sources, but soon we’ll talk about it with the same confidence we do of EDIFACT. We’re focused on the end goal, which is making retailing easier for everyone in a changing distribution world. And through next-gen search like our Content Curation Layer, comparing offers regardless of content source can be seamless.

But back to today. While the standardization in NDC and LCC content has a way to go, we’re working so that the smooth, seamless ordering and servicing of content from any source is possible for agencies. It’s critical for the adoption of NDC and it’s a key tenet for how we continue to add value in an increasingly fragmented world of content.

Travelport’s research has further explored how NDC complexity is impacting travelers — read the insights here.