Category Archives: Technology

The Museum of the Future and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) have announced a new partnership to showcase future mobility solutions, from personal jet packs to self-driving cars. They signed a strategic partnership to exhibit some of the world’s most exciting, advanced mobility solutions at the ‘Tomorrow, Today’ exhibition, an ever-evolving showcase of innovations at the Museum of the Future. Visitors will have the chance to see personal jetpacks, medical drones, food delivery robots, electric bikes, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and more. Highlights include autonomous vehicle prototypes that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and geospatial data. The exhibition will also display new ideas for green, sustainable, and environmentally friendly mass transport services being presented worldwide and research and development centres around the world. His Excellency Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority, (RTA), Commissioner-General for the Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Wellbeing Pillar in Dubai, said: “The rapid technological and industrial changes brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially in the field of autonomous transportation, will reshape the future of mobility, provide new means of transportation, and develop current means of transportation in line with future trends. The demand for mass passenger transport and shared mobility is expected to increase.” He added: “Under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the supervision of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Executive Council and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, the Roads and Transport Authority …

Wego and German National Tourist Office for the GCC sign new partnership to inspire travellers to visit the country post COVID-19. The German.Local.Culture. campaign promotes Germany focusing on four themes: ‘Flair, Craft, Taste and Green’. The campaign will be marketed to Wego’s wide user base to bring more travellers from the MENA region. Wego’s data shows that Germany is in the top 10 destinations for MENA travellers looking to travel to Europe in 2022. The campaign will be launched digitally through social media networks for a broader reach to establish an authentic image of Germany as a sustainable travel destination. The country attracts tourists for its historic architecture, picturesque Old Towns, urban city vitality, impressive industrial monuments, castles and palaces and unspoiled nature. The ‘Flair’ theme showcases the architectural styles of the German cities and places of cultural interest to the tourists. The theme highlights the regional roots of small towns with fascinating historical stories. GNTB, through the campaign, aims to reignite the love of architecture among foreign tourists. Mamoun Hmedan, Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa (MENA) and India of Wego, said: “Following the successful campaigns, we’re partnering with the German National Tourist Board for the third year running. We are looking forward to inviting even more travellers to this preferred European destination through this campaign.” The campaign also focuses on enjoyable travel experiences even under covid-19 circumstances. These experiences include Germany’s classical and world-famous opera houses attracting about one-third of worldwide operatic performances. The famous opera houses have historic concert halls, ornate stucco, and plush furniture. Yamina Sofo, director of sales and marketing at the German National Tourist Office (GNTO GCC), said: “The GCC …

Al-Hashar Tourism and Travels LLC selected  Amadeus technology to offer its customers a range of new technology-driven solutions. The multi-year partnership with Amadeus will deliver increased productivity, optimized customer service, and time-saving reporting solutions. Muslim Mahmood Mohammad Ahmed, General Manager of Al-Hashar Travel, said: “Our customers deserve and expect outstanding services from Al-Hashar. This new partnership with Amadeus will propel the company firmly into a brighter, technologically advanced future of enhanced productivity and customer service, ensuring we remain the leading travel provider in the Sultanate, while improving our efficiency and profitability.” Ernesto Sanchez Beaumont, Managing Director, Amadeus Gulf, adds: “Today, the overall travel dynamic has evolved due to the pandemic. We must adapt to the emerging needs of the travel industry as we seek to renew travel and build it back better than it was before. Sitting at the heart of the travel ecosystem, Amadeus is committed to supporting forward-thinking customers such as Al-Hashar Travel to reconnect with travelers and bring back the joy of travel. By working together, we can get the world traveling again.” “Al Hashar’s trust in Amadeus is another milestone in our growth and further evidence of our strong commitment towards all the travel agencies in the sultanate,” he added. The solutions being adopted by the Muscat-headquartered firm include the cloud-based Amadeus Selling Platform Connect, a powerful and customizable online booking and fulfillment platform designed to meet Al-Hashar’s specific needs. Implementing Selling Platform Connect enables Al-Hashar’s travel counselors to service travelers around the clock, via any web-connected device. Additionally, Amadeus Master Pricer, a powerful search tool, will assist Al-Hashar staff in sourcing the lowest fares online, while Amadeus Dynamic Travel Documents conveniently collates a traveler’s complete …

Sabre Corporation  and Wingie Enuygun Group announced a renewal of their multiyear GDS agreement to help drive international growth. Wingie Enuygun has been working with Sabre for more than seven years, delivering on its vision to help today’s traveler to save time and money. Under the renewal agreement, Wingie Enuygun will be using Sabre Red 360 to deliver highly personalized offers for its customers, by deploying intelligent and consultative services and features on the wingie.com, wingie.ae, sa.wingie.com and enuygun.com domains. “We are excited to extend our longstanding relationship with Wingie Enuygun,” said Altug Bekdemir, General Manager, Sabre Turkey. “The online sector is at the forefront of travel’s recovery, so there is a huge opportunity for Wingie Enuygun to position itself for growth.  Wingie Enuygun’s decision to extend its partnership with Sabre will enable the company to tap into increased traveler demand through this time of ‘ revenge travel’ and beyond.” MENA’s leading travel marketplace Wingie Enuygun will use Sabre’s marketplace of more than 400 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car rental and cruise providers, to sell customized travel packages from suppliers around the world. “We have a great relationship with Sabre, based on many years of mutual trust. By renewing our contract with Sabre and updating our performance through Sabre’s advanced technologies, we aim to provide the seamless, quality service that our millions of users seek, thereby improving their travel experience,” said Wingie Enuygun CEO and founder, Çağlar Erol.

Amadeus is partnering with ATS Travel to launch its sustainable drive under the brand ‘ATS Go Green’ in collaboration with Olive Gaea, a Dubai-based start-up providing Net Zero solutions across the MENATI region. Amadeus is committed to working towards environmental sustainability, encouraging industry-wide progress to help achieve its net zero targets and securing long-term growth and prosperity for the travel industry. The company has set a target of zero emissions by 2050, with the ambition to achieve this by 2030. The ‘ATS Go Green’ initiative reiterates the commitment by all parties to reach their environmental sustainability goals and be the front runners in the travel industry providing tailor-made reports on Co2 emissions for corporates. Saleem Sharif, Deputy Managing Director at ATS Travel said, “The partnership will allow Amadeus, ATS Travel and Olive Gaea to work closely together and offer clients offsetting opportunities and inspire sustainable living. The collaboration saw all parties pledging to develop a more sustainable future with participants planting mangroves at the local Al Zohra mangrove ecosystem.  Participants were briefed on the sustainability project and taken on a Kayak tour to the mangrove plantation area with reusable water bottles and eco-friendly utilities. We invited our corporate clients and UAE National airlines representatives to join the event and support the cause.” “The increase of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere today is a growing concern within the travel and tourism sector. We aim to be the front runners in the travel sector providing custom carbon footprint reports for Air, Land, and hotels to our travel corporates. Our collaboration will enable us to go beyond just greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reports in the future, and provide cost effective offsetting options,” …

As part of its continued support of hotels in the Middle East, Atomize partners with ExploreTECH to help drive growth and digital transformation in the region. Hotels in the Middle East are leading the global recovery from the pandemic and are boosting their revenues and growing their market share with the help of price automation. Atomize’s solution matches the region’s high demand for lean and easy-to-use revenue management tools that do not require hours of training to use. This is reflected in the company’s recent customer signings. In the last couple of months alone, Atomize has expanded its Middle East footprint with the addition of hotel groups such as JA Resorts & Hotels with its 10 luxury properties representing 1,500 rooms in Dubai, Maldives and Seychelles, Gulf Court Hotel, with the ambition to do a full roll-out across the group’s portfolio and Dubai-based SUHA Hospitality with its four luxury hotel apartment properties in Dubai. As part of Atomize’s increased presence in the region, they have recently partnered with ExploreTECH, the rapidly expanding marketplace platform that presents the knowledge, resources and technology required to fully optimize business performance in the hospitality and travel sector across the Middle East. “The partnership with ExploreTECH is a natural and important step in our continued support of hotels in the region. Not only are Middle East hotels leading the global recovery but they are also embracing price automation to leverage as much as possible from market demand and reach superior results.”, says Alexander Edström, CEO at Atomize. “It is a great pleasure to welcome Atomize to the ExploreTECH family. By providing an innovative revenue management solution for the hospitality industry, Atomize will provide considerable value …

iCoupon, the leading digital vouchering platform in airports worldwide, is continuing to revolutionise the world of digital vouchering with its new service, iCoupon AutoPay. The iCoupon system already organises all airline vouchers by flight, date, airport and creates draft invoices automatically, and now the retailer will no longer have to spend time sending the auto-generated bill to each individual airline and chase for payment. Instead, iCoupon’s billing system, for those who select the service, will automatically submit the invoices directly to iCoupon, which will pay the bills directly to the retailers on payment dates and terms selected by the retailer. Airlines will only have one bill to pay to iCoupon for their consolidated AutoPay retailer bills, yet still have full visibility of every passenger transaction for audit, EU261 and validation purposes. In addition, the entire billing process takes place automatically in the iCoupon billing engine, meaning that retailers and airlines do not need to make any changes manually and everything carries on as normal from their perspective. By automatically generating billing documents at the end of each month, iCoupon AutoPay will eliminate the time retailers and airlines are putting into billing administration. The billing documents will be fully compliant with local legislation of each country, and with VAT compliance such as EU112 directives. After generating the document, iCoupon will automatically pay the retailer on its selected credit terms. Retailers using iCoupon AutoPay can select which package best suits their needs and will be paid depending on that choice. New and existing retailers and airlines will be able to opt-in to the solution and iCoupon will do the rest, with just the flick-of-a-switch. Non-iCoupon AutoPay clients will be able to continue …

AVIAREPS launched its Digital Ecosystem, an all-in-one marketing hub for the travel industry. The AVIAREPS Ecosystem empowers everyone to market their brand and product to a global community online via a platform that combines several digital marketing solutions into one unified hub. With only a few clicks, customers can promote their destination, hotel, airline, car rental, cruise line or attraction and reach potential trade partners around the world. The AVIAREPS Ecosystem brings digital marketing solutions such as landing pages, campaign websites, webinars, online press conferences, e-learnings and virtual events under one umbrella. The platform lets clients reach travel trade professionals and media all over the world with specific market campaigns, a multi-country approach or a global campaign. All campaigns are fully customizable to the client’s CI and the user-friendly interface of the AVIAREPS Ecosystem allows the user to easily adjust multiple design themes and components. Users benefit from a single sign-on and from easy access to the browser-based digital marketing services, provided by state-of-the-art technology partners to ensure the best-in-class solutions. Thomas Drechsler, COO Tourism at AVIAREPS, said: “Our digital ecosystem offers easy access to a variety of digital marketing services for the travel industry. By bringing webinars, websites, e-learnings and virtual events under one global umbrella, we simplify digital marketing and expand the potential reach of digital marketing campaigns. Our competent local trade marketers at AVIAREPS help clients design the perfect campaign and assist in selecting suitable content for the campaigns. Thanks to the user-friendly design and browser-based technology, the AVIAREPS Ecosystem empowers everyone to market their brand and product to a global community online – no technical expertise is necessary! Be it a landing page, a campaign website, …

ATS Travel has extended its partnership with Amadeus as the UAE-headquartered travel management company embarks on an ambitious expansion plan across the GCC. The deal cements a long-term digital transformation partnership between the two companies, adding new value to ATS Travel’s offering and helping position it as a leading travel management company in the Middle East. With the new solutions, ATS Travel will gain new efficiencies by fully automating its ticketing system through Amadeus Auto Ticketing Solution. Meanwhile, Amadeus Remote Ticketing Solution will deliver a fully automated solution for managing pricing, price comparison, and ticketing at remote points of sale. ATS Travel will also benefit from Amadeus Hotels, a one-stop-shop search platform that pulls together content from top hotel aggregators and the world’s leading hotel chains and representation companies into an intelligent single screen solution. Ernesto Sanchez Beaumont, Managing Director, Amadeus Gulf, commented, “The pandemic has led to accelerated demand for digital solutions across the customer journey, particularly for touchless experiences. Amadeus technology will allow ATS Travel to automate many of its functions, delivering superior customer service and cutting costs.” Saleem Sharif, Deputy Managing Director at ATS Travel, said: “The travel industry is one of the biggest contributors to regional economies. Therefore, improving efficiencies streamlines our business and helps us deliver better value to the markets we operate in. Amadeus and ATS Travel have a relationship that goes back many years, and based on the strength of its solutions, our long-term plan is to standardize our technology stack on Amadeus technology.” ATS Travel is the UAE representative of ATG – one of the largest, independently owned business travel management companies globally – with offices in Saudi Arabia and India. The …

As recovery of the travel industry picks up steam, payments technology company Mastercard and travel website Musafir have partnered to take travel bookings originating in the Middle East and North Africa, to new heights. The exclusive partnership will digitize end-to-end payment flows and launch new innovative payment products with attractive travel benefits to both consumers and corporates. According to an analysis by the Mastercard Economics Institute, if flight booking trends continue at their current pace, an estimated 115 million more passengers in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa will fly in 2022 compared to last year. The research reveals that global leisure and business flight bookings have surpassed pre-pandemic levels with an estimated 1.5 billion more passengers predicted to fly in 2022 compared to 2021. “At Mastercard we are committed to contribute to the continued recovery of the travel and tourism sector through insights, data analysis, innovative digital solutions and unique partner collaborations. We are continuously investing to innovate across the travel value chain. We are excited to partner with Musafir to provide digital-first experiences to their consumers,” said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard. “Our partnership with Mastercard is a testament to our belief that travel is back and our commitment to providing both consumers and corporates with technology-led travel solutions,” said Sachin Gadoya, Co-founder, and CEO of Musafir.com. Musafir.com is the UAE’s first online travel agency and is among the leading corporate travel management companies in the region. Mastercard and Musafir have signed an exclusive partnership to launch innovative payment products and solutions across the MENA region, benefiting both consumers and corporates. These will help digitize end-to-end payment flows, providing …