Scott Darlow is the General Manager of Link Travel Group, the invitation-only member’s group for luxury and corporate travel agencies.
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NEW Distribution Capability, or NDC, we first heard about it over a decade ago and like rain in a drought, we’ve constantly heard “it’s coming”. It’s not “coming” anymore, it’s here and here for real! I do sense around some parts of the agency community that there is almost a sense of denial or disbelief that it’s finally here after so many years of it being talked about, almost like Sydney’s second airport!
I’m constantly amazed on my travels around the country when I ask agents what their NDC strategy is to get a reply along the lines of “we won’t need it will we?”, or “we will be fine doing things as we do now”. Even more shocking than that are some of replies I receive when I ask agents what their buying group is doing for them in relation to NDC, the most common replies being “I don’t know” or “they are not investing in NDC”. I ask agency owners, “are you willing to leave that to chance”?
Yes, I get that NDC is new and represents change from what we’ve done in the past, but so did mobile phones, Uber and even the internet.
We adapted to those and now it’s time to adapt to NDC.
No doubt about it, early adopters of the NDC technology will have a tremendous advantage in the industry and those that are proactive as opposed to reactive will forge ahead.
So it’s time for agency owners to ask themselves, “is my head in the right space to move with the times & technology, or is my head buried in the sand?”. And while you’re asking questions, go back to your buying group and ask them “what are you doing about NDC that will support my business & future and how much have you invested in it?” You’ll learn a lot about where their heads are at by their reply! I take great delight when my members ask me that question, actually they don’t ask me that question anymore these days as they are all involved, they’re prepared and they are ready to embrace this new world.
NDC is here to stay and it’s the future, it’s revolutionary and it’s even one of the reasons that new “future focussed” buying groups have emerged….……. something I know all too well!
