Amadeus has announced a new proposed rail travel business model designed to attract foreign travelers and drive new revenues for railways and travel agencies.
The model aims to provide global travel agencies a link to sell multiple railways, bypassing the need for one-to-one commercial relationships between parties with a single interface and one sales system. Currently the full offers of DB (German), RENFE (Spanish), SNCF (French, available in CESE only), Trenitalia (Italian) and select eastern European rail operators are available as part of the model, with more expected to join soon.
Amadeus acts as a sales agent for rail operators to simplify contractual agreements, financial flows and invoicing with travel agencies, leading to reduced costs. Billing and settlement activities, as well as financial and legal risks of selling via travel agencies are all taken care of by Amadeus. Additionally, the model will enable railways to reach new travelers in new markets as the company takes care of promoting their offer to travel agencies.
Antoine de Kerviler, global head of Rail & Ground Travel at Amadeus, says rail travel is still largely domestic, adding that he believes this will soon change. Kerviler also states that Amadeus’s merchant model will give the industry what it needs to take a “global leap, and unlock growth,” while travel agencies will gain a convenient gateway to leading rail content that will serve to “enrich their overall offer.”
With the new model, foreign travelers can book rail travel through their travel agency before flying and have their entire trip, including air, hotel and rail, on the same itinerary.
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