How travel was managed back in 1950

1. in 1950
Once
upon
a
*me,
in
1950
Photo
source:
h,p://cmedialab.org
TTS

2. When
the
internet
was
s*ll
far
away…

3. Travel
agents
used
to
book
each
flight
by
hand.
Photo
source:
h,p://www.everythingpanam.com

4. Imagine
the
workload!

5. And
they
had
no
other
op*on.
Photo
source:
h,p://www.allposters.com

6. Photo
source:
h,p://www.computerhistory.org/
Customers,
too,
had
no
other
op*on,
but
the
travel
agencies.

7. Then,
in
1953,
IBM
and
American
Airlines
created
a
semi-­‐
automated
system,
c a l led
C u s tomer
Reserva=ons
Systems.
Photo
source:
h,p://www.corbisimages.com

8. Amazing
!
Photo
source:
h,p://www.thisismarilyn.com

9. considering
there
was
no

10. Result?
Photo
source:
h,p://75.aircanada.com
Photo
source:
h,p://www-­‐03.ibm.com

11. Result?
All
airlines
got
connected
to
this
system.

12. Every
day
airlines
would
pay
CRSs
to
be
listed
in
their
database.
Photo
source:
h,p://news.bbc.co.uk

13. Travel
agencies
would
get
commissions
from
airlines,
depending
on
the
amount
of
flights
booked.

14. And
then
the
fares
became
biased
to
par*cular
airlines.

15. In
short,
everything
got
complicated.

16. Because
of
that,
in
1980,
the
Airlines
decided
to
create
their
own
systems.

17. And
these
systems
were
the
Global
Distribu*on
Systems
(GDS).
=automated
booking
systems
for
individual
airlines

18. What
did
this
mean?

19. It
meant
that
now
the
GDSs
could
calculate
and
get
all
offers
for
each
airline.
Photo
@
Jack
Mitchell

20. The
distribu*on
channels
facilitated
a
great
deal
the
online
search
process.

21. What
has
changed
since
then?

22. PreYy
much.

23. Nowadays
there
are
three
major
GDSs:
Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport (Apollo, Galileo and Worldspan)
"

24. Booking
complex
trips
is
no
longer
an
issue.

25. With
GDSs
covering
everything,
from
airline
*ckets,
to
car
rentals,
to
hotel
rooms
and
more…

26. Mobility
on
the
GDS
is
now
also
available.
Applica*ons
like
Travelport
Mobile
Agent
make
it
possible.
Travelportmobileagent.,s.com

27. As
you
may
see,
GDS
remains
a
hero
in
this
whole
story.

28. That
is,
GDS
remains
the
main
distribu*on
channel
to
connect
airlines
and
travel
agents
around
the
world.