The expansion of online travel agencies (OTAs) in Africa is being held back by airlines failing to deliver on their original promises when it comes to NDC.
This was a topic highlighted during the Web in Travel (WiT) conference held in Cape Town on March 13. During a panel discussion, Andy Hedley, MD of Travelstart, said airlines had yet to fully leverage the potential of NDC. “Airlines have to figure out how to use NDC properly. While it has been customised by nearly every airline, it still doesn’t deliver on its original promise, which was personalisation to the customer. If properly utilised, it could benefit the entire travel value chain,” he said.
For example, Hedley pointed that many travellers often took longer than 30 minutes to complete a booking, by which time their selected offer had expired, creating a frustrating experience that contributed to lost sales opportunities.
Panellist Bayo Adedeji, Group CEO of Wakanow, agreed and said another point of frustration when it came to airlines was that OTAs were treated differently from offline players. “They give us deals, but then tell us we can’t display them online. Then how do we sell them?” He argued that airlines should recognise the significant investment OTAs made in marketing and technology infrastructure. “Airlines need to wake up and give us the tools to capture more market for them.”
Beyond NDC, several other factors continue to hinder OTA expansion in Africa. Adedeji identified visa restrictions and costs as major barriers.
“It’s cheaper to travel from Ghana to London than between Ghana and Sierra Leone,” he pointed out. Limited intra-Africa connectivity further compounded the problem, making regional travel complex and expensive. He noted that travellers from Lagos to South Africa, for instance, had to route through Europe or the Middle East unless they were flying with SAA.
Another barrier is e-commerce and payment technology. Hedley pointed out that the low penetration of credit cards across Africa limited growth, along with the wide variety of preferred payment methods in each country and region.
