GALILEO International is to put together a team of staff to run its e-commerce and Internet strategy.
The group will be lead by Galileo International’s senior vice-president subscriber sales David Near, who has expertise in the field.
The size of the team has yet to be revealed by the company as Near is still in the process of assembling it.
A spokeswoman for the company said the move did not mean that Galileo was changing its Internet policy, which has always been to avoid creating a Web presence in itself.
Instead it wants to make Galileo an enabler – providing access for agents so they can use the Web for value-added service.
She said: “The team will concentrate one-commerce and Internet business but we do not want to compete with travel agents. We are not going for a branded presence on the Web like Sabre has with Travelocity. We simply want to be an effective booking agent.
“We are assembling the team because we want to look at our strategy and make sure it’s the right one. The team will also be looking at other opportunities with e-commerce such as the purchase of complementary on-line travel services.
“We have already started doing this – Galileo International bought a minority shareholding in the on-line travel service trip.com in April which means we can use its technology to allow agents to find the lowest fare for their clients.”
Galileo integrated trip.com’s technology to provide subscribers with access to on-line reservations, many of which offer discounted rates.