ECTAA wants a single ticket to cover train, coach and air

The European Forum for Organized Tourism, which was held in Tallin, Italy under the aegis of the European Union wants transport connectivity and intramodality and regarded it as a success factor for the European tourism sector but from the perspective of a travel agency, much has yet to be done to ensure multimodal door-to-door transport.

Merike Hallik, President of ECTA, the European Association of advents and tour operators, underlined that better connectivity and intramodality are key elements for travel and tourism. In fact, more than 70,000 travel agents and tour operators in Europe are facing increasing demand from consumers for a door to door trip package by purchasing a single document that includes all modes of transport, preferably in a single booking and with a single payment.

The operational role of European travel agents starts with a very simple statement: while liberalization in air transport and the progressive liberalization of the rail transport market have greatly improved connectivity in Europe through greater choice, with more accessible routes and transport services, consumer expectations are not yet fully met.

There are, in fact, multimodal travel planning services but they  are fragmented and unconnected: In a nutshell, we are still far from unified bookings and payments for combined transport services.

Specifically said, the basis for this policy is healthy competition in the transport market and key players to help develop multimodal services. ”

ECTAA, therefore, reiterates that the travel industry needs a regulatory framework that enhances connectivity, not only in Europe but also in important other tourism markets, and thus enables the development of multimodal transport services such as ‘access to tariffs, even to  third-party distribution channel.