What is content fragmentation in travel?

Content fragmentation has become one of the defining challenges in corporate travel today.

In the early days of travel management companies (TMCs), a travel manager could be confident that their TMC had access to the same travel inventory as everyone else. Now the situation has changed dramatically.

Many travel providers have shifted their distribution strategies, and the best fares, rates, and servicing options are now available only through deep integrations with their latest APIs. In parallel, the number of content aggregators has grown.

Most travel sellers are not equipped to handle the complexity of content fragmentation and struggle to provide access to the full range of content sources in the market, leading travelers to book elsewhere for the best deals.

This post explains what content fragmentation is, what causes it, and what it means for travel programs, agents, and TMCs.

What is content fragmentation in travel?

Content fragmentation happens when travel inventory is spread across multiple, often siloed distribution channels, making it exceedingly difficult to provide a complete view of available options. The problem plays out across all of the main categories of managed travel content.

Airlines

Major airlines began pursuing direct distribution to gain more control over their product presentation. For decades, the GDS was the primary pipeline for corporate travel content. Airlines filed fares, which were then distributed through GDSs, and TMCs pulled from these fares.

Airlines eventually wanted to create the same real-time connection with the buyer at the point of sale that is available in other industries. IATA’s NDC standard, introduced in 2012, gave carriers a technical framework to distribute richer content, including bundles, ancillaries, and personalized offers, directly to travel sellers via APIs. 

In parallel, low-cost carriers, many of which had always operated outside the GDS, contributed to fragmentation by avoiding traditional distribution channels and building their own direct connections with select partners.

Every major airline now has its own distribution approach. Some are committed NDC retailers; others are testing specific markets or fare classes; others continue to prioritize GDSs. There is no uniform standard for the pace or scope of transition, which means the channel mix looks different for every carrier.

Hotels

Hotel content distribution has historically fragmented through a different mechanism. Large chains have pushed travelers toward direct booking through loyalty program incentives, while independent and regional properties have never fully adopted GDS distribution. Hotels also retail through OTAs, which in turn aggregate content for others, and provide a channel for individual hotels to sell rooms with increased discounting. 

Many corporate hotel rates are negotiated as a percentage discount off the best available rate (BAR), but because BAR fluctuates dynamically, travelers can often find lower rates on consumer booking sites, especially if a hotel chooses to discount rates to compete against competitors in its market.

Hotel chains are now beginning to follow in the airlines’ footsteps. Just as NDC gave carriers a framework to distribute richer content directly to travel sellers, leading hotel groups are building deep, direct API integrations with modern travel platforms; Spotnana’s recent direct connection to Marriott International is an example. These direct connections deliver real-time pricing and inventory availability, access to the same photos and rate details available on hotel websites, access to loyalty benefits, and improved servicing.

Ground transportation

Content distribution for ground transportation is also highly fragmented for unique reasons. The major car rental brands adopted GDS distribution early, but a newer wave of mobility providers, including black car networks and rideshare services, launched as digital-first businesses and never built GDS connections. Major car rental companies are also starting to make APIs available in the market.

Rail content distribution developed along national lines, with each country’s carriers running their own reservation systems governed by strict regulations, so much of the world’s rail inventory has never reached corporate booking channels until now.

Aggregators have emerged to help bridge these gaps. These intermediaries consolidate content from OTAs, hotels, low-cost carriers, rail operators, and other sources into a single connection point. They expand access to content that would otherwise require dozens of individual integrations, but each aggregator has its own coverage, commercial model, and API, so they also add another layer to the channel mix that travel sellers must manage.

What content fragmentation means for travel programs

The most visible consequence of content fragmentation for corporate travel programs is the complaint from travelers “I found it cheaper somewhere else.” As some airlines move their best fares outside GDS channels, travelers who book direct can sometimes find lower prices than what their TMC offers. This phenomenon breaks trust in a managed travel program, leading to leakage and dissatisfied travelers.

When travelers book outside the managed program, the downstream effects compound quickly: data visibility erodes, duty of care becomes harder to manage, negotiated hotel and airline volumes decline, and unused ticket tracking grows more complex.

The UK and Ireland’s Institute of Travel Management has observed that blame is increasingly directed at TMCs for not being able to access the right fares, and can lead to travel managers questioning the need for a TMC.

What content fragmentation means for TMCs and agents

The operational burden of content fragmentation on TMCs is growing. Sabre research across 14 countries found that 91% of agencies use four or more booking systems, with more than half using seven or more, and 10% managing ten or more. Over 70% report growth in their system count over the past three years.

The same research found that nearly two-thirds of agencies have increased API integrations over the past three years, and more than half say managing multiple connections has become a burden.

Agencies report that content fragmentation creates unwanted complexity, drives up operational and technology costs, produces inconsistent customer experiences, slows onboarding for new agents, and contributes to agent frustration.

In many cases, agents wrestle with a “swivel chair” experience where they have to spend time in multiple systems and call travel providers directly to create a booking or service a trip.

Moving bookings outside GDS channels can also reduce or eliminate GDS incentive payments that many TMCs depend on to subsidize transaction fees.

The path forward

It’s clear that we live in a world where content fragmentation is extensive and continuing to grow. The booking and servicing technology that was designed when travel content was highly centralized has struggled to transition to a world where every major airline, hotel, and ground transportation provider is either providing an API or building one.

Spotnana was designed from the very beginning to embrace content fragmentation as a reality. Our Content Engine works with any source of content, and to date we have built direct integrations with over 30 top travel providers as well as with GDSs, OTAs, and aggregators.

It’s our goal to eliminate the phrase “I found it cheaper elsewhere” once and for all by providing access to the widest range of content sources. The integrations we build make it easy for travelers to shop across content sources and find the best available options. Even more importantly, our travel platform is designed to make any source of content easy to service as well. 

Where we choose to build direct integrations, we often find that we can work as a strategic development partner with a travel provider and be the first to bring new capabilities to market. Over time, we believe it will be possible to create an entirely new generation of retailing experiences with AI-powered recommendations, personalized offers, and proactive servicing.

To learn more about how Spotnana addresses content fragmentation, explore our Content Engine or request a demo today.