Packaged goods in traditional retail have a very different meaning to packaged goods in the travel space. 

In retail, a packaged product is a product that is sold in a "package", ie. a box or a blister pack (literally packaged). 

In travel, a packaged product is one that is a combination of two separate products packaged together, for example a hotel room and a concert ticket. 

Then there is dynamic packaging, the concept of being able to pick and purchase multiple products together in one transaction.  When you think about it in terms of retail, the concept of doing anything else would be absurd.  Imagine, for example, going to a grocery store and only being able to shop and pay for one item at a time. 

As ridiculous as that sounds, this is the standard method for purchasing travel products.

So, let's look at a practical example of selling packaged goods.  You go to a retail outlet, you see a shirt you want to buy, you check the price, you take the shirt off the rack, try it on, take it to the cashier, pay for it, and take it home.  It's a nice simple process: the shirt you try on at the store is the same shirt you take home with you. 

Your expectations are to find a shirt, buy it, and take it home so you can wear it right away.  Seems simple enough and yet the travel industry is filled with examples of products that are not sold in this manner.  Using the retail outlet example, imagine walking into the store, finding a shirt that you want, but then having the sales clerk tell you that you can't take it home because the store can't actually sell you the shirt that you want until they call the manufacturer to make sure they can sell the one that you want. 

This process could take a day or so, so the sales clerk tells you that in order for them to check with the manufacturer they need a deposit from you to make sure you're committed to the sale.  To top it all off, they can only tell you the actual price of the shirt once they get the confirmation that they can sell the shirt. 

My question to you is… would you bother buying the shirt? Probably not, and yet, much of the travel industry works on this request and confirmation method.  It's inefficient and frustrating for the customer because it makes the process obtuse.

So what can travel companies do to increase transparency in pricing and make the process more efficient? Package your products in the retail sense.  Look at what you sell, separate them into their individual sell-able parts, wrap them up in shrink wrap, put them on your shelf, and sell them. 

When you do that, you will be able to document your products in a structured format, perhaps using OpenTravel standards, load them into distribution systems or manage them using tour operator software, and sell them through multiple channels  while maintaining price parity. 

The most important aspect of selling packaged goods is that it is easier for others to sell your products which makes distribution more efficient.

Stephen A. Joyce has been working as a travel & tourism technology consultant since 1995. In 2005 Stephen and his company, Sentias Software Corp., began development on Rezgo.com, a next generation Web 2.0 tour and activity booking engine for SME travel suppliers and tour operators. In June of 2007, Rezgo.com was officially released and now boasts a user base of 650+ companies. 

www.tourismtechnology.rezgo.com