The Role of the GDSs in How Today's Travel Agents Look and Book

Summary

Global distribution systems (GDSs) have been front and center on travel agent desktops for decades. Today, they continue to represent a major piece of airline transactions and a vast majority of travel agency flight, hotel and car rental transactions. But the travel agency landscape and agents’ use of technology for research and booking has evolved significantly over the past decade, and the GDS no longer takes center stage in all circumstances.

This analysis examines how travel agents in the U.S. research and book travel products (including the types of systems and websites they use), the role of the GDS and use of graphical versus conventional GDS cryptic environments, and how this varies by agency type.