Online travel agent travel.com.au told ZDNet Australia Zuji would be unlikely to exploit its close ties with airlines to the detriment of competing services, as carriers would not risk damaging their business relationships in other sales channels.
Travel.com.au business analyst Simon Hillier said, however, that many quarters of the travel industry had alerted the ACCC about the deal, concerned that airlines would be able to by pass travel agents when offering special deals to fill under-loaded flights.
"The agents keep an eye on this stuff and agents who typically sell a lot of a group of airline [brands] will sway customers' business away from those airlines onto other airlines," said Hillier.
Travel.com.au said it initially had misgivings about Zuji as the ACCC appeared to be giving the consortium favourable treatment. It said the ACCC appeared to change rules concerning the price advertisement on sites to favour Zuji.
"I guess from day one we thought it's a bit like they're bending the rules for these guys," said Hillier.
Travel.com.au is content with the ACCC's decision not to intervene in Zuji as long as it continues to get access to the same deals that are being made available to the airline consortiums site.
The ACCC chairman Professor Alan Fels said yesterday that it considered Zuji to be a new competitor in a relatively young industry and that it was too early to step in and stop operation. However he said that the ACCC would closely monitor the online travel industry as it matures.
"Given that online travel services are still in the early stages of development and Zuji is a new competitor in this area, the ACCC does not intend to oppose the operation of Zuji in Australia at this stage", Professor Fels said. "Nevertheless, the ACCC will continue to monitor it to ensure that neither Zuji nor its owners, engage in anti-competitive conduct".
Hillier said smaller, traditional bricks and mortar agents still stand to lose the most as the online travel industry grows. He said many of the special deals of the kind that Zuji are unlikely to be sold through offline agents.
"I'm sure that you'll see good deals out there but a lot of it is only going to be worth selling online because the margins are going to be small," said Hillier.
"They are losing ground to online agencies as travel becomes more and more of a commodity".
Both Australian Federation of Travel Agents and the independent travel agency body, UTAG, declined the opportunity to comment on the ACCC's decision.
What is the use of new online Travel sites when none of them offer anything different to what is already in the market?
They can't offer anthing different because the "travel agent middle-men corner stores" will keep crying foul if they think the travel sites prices are too cheap.
Travel Agents 1 - Consumers 0