Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go on line and ask “I have $500. Where can I go and what can I do for that?” then get a nice selection of options? New search technology being tested right now is going to be able to do just that on line soon with an extreme travel search we could only have dreamed of not all that long ago.
Amadeus, a leading travel technology company for the global travel and tourism industry commissioned an international research organization to investigate the way that travelers book and search on-line. The study charged Amadeus to develop technological innovation that would engage and effectively serve the needs of the next generation traveler. Basically, it looks like someone finally came up with a search product that will let travelers ask open questions in real-time such as “where can I go on a beach holiday in Europe for less than 600 euros per person?”
Travelers will no longer need to enter origin and destination information, but can inspire their search by budget, type of activity or geography all on a single page and receive relevant responses immediately.
“Amadeus Extreme Search provides our customers with intuitive and efficient options where users can explore and determine their trip based on their holiday requirements.” Johan Elwin, Director of Business Development at European Travel Interactive who is piloting the program told TravelDailyNews.com. “The ability to inspire the traveler to search easily in the same way they think, with quality content, gives us a considerable competitive edge and serves the interests of today’s traveler.”
The underlying technology, leveraging the Amadeus Massive Computation Platform, processes billions of results based on the traveler’s query. The traveler receives practically instant results which are based on real-time availability and price. Unlike any other on the market, this multi-carrier solution provides the most exhaustive and complete choice of options (including more than 440 airlines), which are bookable and accurate over multiple destinations and during a full calendar year.
“Extreme Search is the natural evolution of today’s consumer practices, overthrowing established search methods based on destinations and dates” said Stephane Durand, Director Online & Leisure, Amadeus.
It looks like one-stop shopping too thanks to Amadeus Master Pricer, the comprehensive low-fare search and merchandising solution for online travel agencies and online sites of travel agencies, the shopping process is seamlessly integrated into the booking flow, including the purchase of the trip on the same website.
To get a feel for how it will work, check Lufthansa’s Trip Finder option that allows you to enter a starting airport location and a dollar budget amount then see were you can go for that price. The idea is about the same. Lufthansa was the launch partner of the airline version of the product.
So now, when you see these new intuitive options on your favorite travel search sites, you know where they came from.
Flickr photo by Identity Photogr@phy
