Jamie Biesiada
The year was 1995. "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio and "Waterfalls" and "Creep" by TLC topped the music charts. "Die Hard With a Vengeance," "Toy Story" and "Apollo 13" were the highest-grossing films around the world. Tom Hanks won the Oscar for his portrayal of Forrest Gump in the eponymous film, which also won for best picture. And Passport Online was founded.
This year, Passport Online celebrates its 25th anniversary. The company offers a range of technology for travel agencies, including aggregated content from suppliers, websites, social media solutions and more.
Agency-facing technology has changed a lot in 25 years. I sat down to talk about it with Greg White, Passport Online's senior vice president of technology and operations. He's been with the company since nearly the beginning, 2001.
White has always worked in some form of technology as a service, starting before terms like "software as a service" or "platform as a service" were in vogue. Out of college, he and some friends started their own internet service provider. Dial-up internet was the name of the game then. White would get involved in hosting and developing web applications and network administration. He joined Passport Online as a network administrator and software developer and has since had several roles at the company.
"It's been quite an interesting evolution, and I don't think we often take enough time to look back at just how far we've come as an industry over the last couple of decades," White said.
The social media specialists say posts that pair a photo with a famous quote get the most shares and that Facebook remains a relevant tool for travel advisors.
In the early days, the fax machine was Passport Online's best friend, White said. Faxes ran 24/7, collecting specials, deals and promotions from suppliers. A team of people would manually enter that content into a database. The information would be burned onto CDs on a weekly or monthly basis. The CDs would be mailed to agencies, which would then use the information as a desktop tool.
"That was considered high-tech," White said. "At the time, it was great versus them having to work with a big stack of their own faxes coming in."
It was also helpful to have a handy digital database of deals, as opposed to a ream of paper, when a client would come in to learn about specials to any given destination.
About 20 years ago, Passport Online went to strictly web-based technology. At the time, its VacationPort product was a self-contained search and shopping tools that agencies could frame into their website. Doing that required special website-building skills.
That evolved, eventually getting Passport Online to where it is today, offering things like application program interfaces to get content to agencies.
White said agent-facing technology has also become more do-it-yourself friendly.
"We keep seeing this progression where what was exotic becomes far more accessible and common and expected," he said, "and what used to require large technical teams to implement becomes a lot easier, and that becomes something that more and more travel agencies are able to use."
White has also found that travel agencies are more willing to depend on third-party technology companies for aspects of their business, like Passport Online, and they are more willing to spend money on technology.
White said the most impactful technology on the agency community has been the ever-increasing mobility of travel advisors. Now, not only can they work from home, but from practically anywhere in the world, thanks to smartphones. They can be in constant communication with their customers.
That, White said, has been a large driver to the success and growth of the host agency community in recent years.
White believes the technology innovation coming down the road will likely be driven by necessity. Travel agencies have to do more with less today, so they will be more driven toward technologies that enable efficiencies and automation. White also thinks there will be an increased emphasis on technology that enables advisors to stay in touch with clients from home and interact with them without being physically close.
"There's definitely a bright future ahead, but like everything, we don't know what tomorrow's going to bring," he said. "We just know that technology is going to play a part in it, and we've seen that so far. We'll just keep looking for what's coming and try to be there to meet and be in front of the industry's need."