Johnny Thorsen, formerly Vice President of Business Development for Content Distribution at Spotnana, has joined New Zealand-based Serko as Vice President of Strategic Business Development.

He chats with Bev Fearis about the move and shares his thoughts on some of the key challenges facing buyers and TMCs, the tech solutions that might solve these challenges, and how the industry must prepare for what’s coming next.

Why have you decided to leave Spotnana for this new role?

I had a fantastic time with Spotnana, and especially the first few years were exciting as I was leading the story-telling of how Spotnana wanted to change the travel industry with a new modern tech platform. The Serko opportunity is a new and unique opportunity for me as I get a chance to help an established company “disrupt themselves” and move from being a traditional product-centric company to being a platform provider.

Furthermore, I get a chance to work with the GetThere team and product again which is a ‘full circle’ move for me as I was part of the original GetThere team back in the late nineties. Finally, as a non-US citizen (I am from Denmark) I find it compelling to play a direct role in showcasing how travel technology can evolve from anywhere in the world and not just the US.

Serko isn’t a well-known name in the US or Europe, so will that be a challenge?

Serko might be an unknown entity in the US and Europe but it is an established leader in corporate travel back home in the APAC region – and with the GetThere acquisition we are now the second largest corporate booking engine in the US market. The combined volume of these customers, plus the Booking.com for Business small business portal, means Serko has a better chance of driving innovation with the travel suppliers in terms of distribution and new services

For my own part, I feel I am going ‘back to the future’ because of the GetThere story, and I am excited about the opportunity to drive global innovation and partner closely with the global TMC community already working with the existing Serko products – and show the travel industry that innovation also can come from outside the US

What is the focus of your new role?

My primary focus areas will be to work closely with the TMC community who are using the Serko products today and drive the move towards a platform centric future, create strategic partnerships with other travel tech providers, drive product innovation and finally help position Serko on as a global technology partner.

What are you most excited by?

The opportunity to help Serko evolve from being a product-centric company with three heritage products to being an open platform provider which can support global innovation in the travel industry with the goal of supporting an end-to-end tech stack for the TMC where everything from front to back office is integrated with a single version of the data truth

How will you go about developing Serko’s network of TMC partners?

Serko already has a well-established list of TMCs who are reselling and supporting the various products, so initially my focus will be on engaging with these TMCs and understand how they are thinking about their future. With AI quickly becoming an integral part of the operational framework for a TMC there are some incredible innovations waiting to be created, and I believe Serko can play a leading role in this space in closer partnership with the TMC community in general.

What are Serko’s plans following the acquisition of GetThere and the partnership with Sabre? What will this mean?

Serko can use the GetThere product and customer base as a foundation for expansion in the US market and beyond, while also strengthening the relationship with travel suppliers as the overall volume of bookings going through the Serko products is substantial. The Sabre partnership is very important to Serko as it enables the co-development of new agent productivity tools designed to increase operational efficiency across the entire TMC workflow.

Serko plans to invest $100m in its platform over the next three years? What’s the first phase?

Serko has already started work on the future platform and in fact Booking.com is using the platform today for the Booking.com for Business global small business portal. Over the next six-12 months we will expand the platform offering by adding a number of new micro services, which can be consumed by API access or via UX provided by Serko. Furthermore, we expect to integrate a number of other travel tech services into the platform so Serko customers can activate and use these almost instantly without complex implementation workflow being required.

What do you think are the key changes the business travel sector will see in the next two years?

The entire business travel vertical is facing dramatic changes in a number of areas and more than likely these will vary by market, supplier and channel. The days of everything being done the same way by everybody are over. Airlines and hotels are pushing forward with major digital innovation projects, which will make it harder for a buyer and TMC to define a standard service model, and meanwhile the next generation of corporate travellers are entering the workforce with a clear expectation of being able to consume all travel services on their mobile devices with a strong blend of of AI-powered smart services in the background.

What are the major challenges for TMCs?

TMCs are trying to navigate a new environment where the travel tech stack is changing at a much faster pace than before, and this challenges their ability to modify their operational and commercial model on short notice. At the same time the TMCs are also struggling with the longer-term problem of a limited amount of new people entering the TMC workforce. But in order to take advantage of the new technologies and reduce the reliance on human agents the TMCs must reconfigure their internal operating platform first so they can launch new automated services much faster, and that requires a new type of experts and skills to manage the transformation, or alternatively a new type of supplier who can deliver and manage these services going forward.

What are the major challenges for travel buyers?

Travel buyers have to accept that the “old playbook” probably no longer works, and they now have to make some initial decisions about what type of programme they want to create and run with and then identify which solutions will support the chosen direction. There are many models already, but to name a few consider the following options:

• TMC delivers tech and service
• Customer selects tech and then a TMC afterwards for service
• Customer selects tech and uses multiple TMCs for service
• Customer selects different TMC and tech and creates their own data lake with services on top
• New AI-powered services emerge overnight.

What technological innovations will provide solutions for these challenges?

There will never be a single technology innovation that can solve all the problems but we are clearly entering a time where the importance of the UX changes dramatically as content will become increasingly fragmented and differentiated with new drivers such as ‘attribute-based shopping’, ‘UX less servicing’, ‘dynamic travel polices’ and ‘sustainability-driven travel’ to name a few. The combination of AI Language Learning Models and new development tools, combined with a growing level of real-time data driven recommendation, will probably be at the forefront of the solutions for the coming years, and there will be a race to attract to retain the smartest tech people into the travel industry in general.

How should TMCs and travel buyers be preparing for these changes?

Both TMCs and buyers should prepare for a new environment where the idea of a three- to five-year agreement might be replaced by a shorter term service agreement with multiple players competing for the business at any given time. Smart buyers might even establish two to three working models to constantly be able to move business from one to the other in order to take advantage of new developments, while TMCs increasingly will define new automated intelligent services with high margins which only can be consumed on a subscription basis. So, the core booking transaction might even become a loss leader designed to attract customers who are prepared to pay for the other premium services. In other words TMCs might start applying yield management principles on their capacity and resources to ensure they generate a profit across their customer base.

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