By: David J. Wardell

© 1997 By: David J. Wardell.  Reproduction or redistribution in any form without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Several large companies were actively involved in prompting them, including SABRE and Mail Boxes, Etc., with numerous other large and small companies on the fringes. According to Travel Weekly of July 14, 1997 there are only six ETDN sites earlier this year and only one company still talking as though they have a future.

My, but we've come a long way from the time I was among a very few who said the ETDN phenomena didn't make sense. Not many years ago the ETDN sessions were SRO at industry conferences, while panels of experts predicted their bright future, and committees with dozens of members met to discuss what standards should be set for their operation.

This ETDN obituary is written in the "what can we learn" spirit. Not only were ETDNs a distraction from more meaningful projects but the same claims are now made for Internet-based commerce—and many of the same problems still exist.

The big ETDN problem from the start was that there were no hoards of customers clamoring for them. Its hard to rationalize that any business traveler, for instance, would view hunting down an ETDN and managing to make it work as a service improvement, when the alternative is a ticket delivered to their desk.

Comparisons were frequently made between ETDNs and ATMs used by banks, but these never held-up. People forget that only in the last few years did ATMs become "universal" and enthusiastically embraced.

ATMs teach us that there is a convenience factor the public wants, but the transactions must be simple and the networks fully developed. ETDNs never came close on either account.

Electronic ticketing certainly didn't help ETDNs. A few moments thought reveals that the fundamental airline ticket hasn't changed in 60 years and tickets could be considerably simplified or eliminated. Even so, ticketless is not the same as paperless and there might have been an ETDN role if the public has wanted one.

Similar criticisms can be made against electronic self-booking tools. There is a hard-core of "do-it-yourself" enthusiasts that are motivated to handle their own travel online (these are the same people who stand in line at the ATM when the bank lobby is empty), but the large, long-term customer markets proponents talk about are pretty vague and poorly understood.

How easily we forget that people have been able to reserve travel online for around 13 years if they really wanted to; most have not.

Whether ETDNs, self-booking systems, or Internet commerce, the allure of technology and vast untapped markets is very compelling. There will always be start-up companies, experts, and wishful-thinkers available to get behind new tools promising big payoffs.

Enthusiasm cannot displace commercial realities, however. Technology enables powerful tools but nether travel technology nor tools are the great equalizers that make effective competitors. Clearly electronic commerce has great potential, but that is not the same as saying that many current concepts, proposals, and products have a future.

Very few products or new businesses are built upon strategic plans or opportunities. Much more often people see a need and fill it.

Technological challenges aside, ETDNs went nowhere because that "need" wasn't well understood. Hopefully the current generation of travel technology companies will learn from the mistaken enthusiasm of the past and produce more practical products.