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  • February 2018
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

EmQuest: Travel Distribution in the Digital Era

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Gamze Yucaoglu
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:19
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Abstract

EmQuest, Emirates Group’s travel distribution company, must decide what to do with its contract with the global distribution system it uses, Sabre. Since its founding in 1988, EmQuest was servicing travel agents in the MENA region by providing a connection to over 400 airlines as well as numerous other travel suppliers. EmQuest mainly relied on Sabre to provide this service to the agents, and its contract was coming to an end.
In the last decade years, since the beginning of EmQuest’s Sabre contract, while EmQuest grew, a lot happened in the travel industry: the Internet transformed customer habits, low-cost carriers emerged, and the Middle East experienced a boom in tourism. The conditions under which EmQuest had first signed its contract with Sabre a decade before were much different in 2017.
With change happening so rapidly and impacting the fundamentals of the travel business model so dramatically, it was a real challenge to predict where the industry would be in the next decade. Yet the management needed to make a decision regarding the Sabre contract in 2017, amidst such a whirlwind in the market.

Keywords

Uae; Emerging Markets; For-profit Firms; Business Model; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Growth And Development Strategy; Value Creation; Change Management; Decision; Business Model; Competitive Strategy; Growth And Development Strategy; Decision Choices And Conditions; Travel Industry; United Arab Emirates

Citation

Lakhani, Karim R., and Gamze Yucaoglu. "EmQuest: Travel Distribution in the Digital Era." Harvard Business School Case 618-040, February 2018.
  • Educators

About The Author

Karim R. Lakhani

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Threadless: The Renewal of an Online Community By: Shane Greenstein, Karim Lakhani and Christian Godwin
  • Consuming Contests: Outcome Uncertainty and Spectator Demand for Contest-based Entertainment By: Patrick J. Ferguson and Karim R. Lakhani
  • Saham Group: It's In the Genes By: Christina R. Wing and Gamze Yucaoglu
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