Category Archives: Technology

Sabre Corporation and Eihab Travels, Oman’s leading IATA accredited travel agency, have announced a new multiyear technology agreement to help transform the travel experience in Oman. While travel is showing signs of recovery in Oman, this new long-term agreement will see Eihab Travels deploy Sabre’s latest technology and best solutions to drive growth, boost revenue and transform its business. The agency will now use Sabre’s next-generation travel agency desktop, Sabre Red 360, to deliver an intelligent and consultative service to travellers, create compelling shopping experiences for customers and provide an enhanced level of expertise to respond to evolving travellers demands. “The travel landscape has evolved dramatically following the pandemic, and that required a fresh outlook at our digital transformation and technology investments,” said Dinesh Poojary, General Manager, Eihab Travels.  “Sabre has the technology and innovation strategy to support our goals, advance our technology and operations and enable our digital transformation to compete on a global level.” As part of its strategic plans to transform the future of travel, Sabre recently announced multiple intelligent solutions, such as Sabre Travel AI and its intelligent retailing engine, which will be infused across its technology platform to power the future of personalized travel. “We have been working to empower our customers to be ready for recovery,” said John Mathew, Oman County Manager, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “We are excited to partner with such a committed, forward-thinking partner like Eihab Travels that clearly understands the role technology plays in travel’s recovery – and we remain committed to equipping the agency with the most innovative solutions to achieve its goals” Sabre has been working with many leading travel companies in The Sultanate of Oman to …

Sabre Corporation and Fahad Express Travel & Tourism L.L.C, one of the leading travel companies in the Sultanate of Oman, have announced a new multiyear preferred GDS agreement to help elevate the traveller experience in Oman. Fahad Express Travel & Tourism has been working with Sabre for more than a decade, delivering on its vision “to offer the best and most satisfying services to holiday seekers and our corporate travellers”. Under the new agreement, Fahad Express will be exclusively using Sabre Red 360 to deliver highly personalised offers for its customers, by deploying intelligent and consultative services and features. Furthermore, it will continue to benefit from Sabre’s automated exchanges and refunds to drive operational efficiency and excellence. “We are excited to extend our longstanding relationship with Fahad Express as its preferred GDS partner,” said John Matthew, Oman Country Manager, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “Online travel is playing a significant role in the industry’s recovery, and we will provide the technology and tools to allow Fahad Express leverage this growth and excel in both online and offline travel.”   Fahad Express Travel and Tourism will use Sabre’s marketplace of more than 400 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers, to sell customized travel packages from suppliers around the world. “We have been successful in building a brand that delivers the perfect balance of quality, reliability and service in the offline space,” said Ms. Juliet Irwin, General Manager, Fahad Express of Travel & Tourism. “Our partnership with Sabre will see us work together to empower the travel industry in Oman and transfer our expertise to excel in the online space. We will leverage Sabre’s …

Khimji’s House of Travel has signed a multiyear agreement with Sabre Corporation, the leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, to expand its operation and fuel its growth. The agreement has reaffirmed more than a decade of partnership between the two companies. Under this agreement, Khimji’s House of Travel will leverage Sabre’s broad portfolio of technology solutions, and deploy its industry leading platform, Sabre Red 360, to deliver an intelligent and consultative service to travellers and create highly personalised offers for its customers. It will utilise its management solutions, such as automated exchanges and refunds, to drive operational efficiency and excellence. “This challenging travel landscape has not deterred us from moving forward,” said Cashio Vettom, General Manager, Khimji’s House of Travel. “Our renewed partnership with Sabre will help us enable our growth and expansion plans, while deploying intelligent solutions to respond to the evolving market trends.” Sabre has been working to realise its long-term vision for a personalised travel marketplace and have announced last year the development of Sabre Travel AI ™, an industry-first technology that will utilize state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to deliver highly relevant and personalized content that better meets the demands of today’s traveller. “The current traveller demands a new level of personalization, increased choice, control and flexibility. We believe that Sabre has the experience, technology, innovation and support to help us better respond to these expectations”. Vettom added. Khimji’s House of Travel operates in both leisure and corporate sectors and will use Sabre’s marketplace of more than 400 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers, to sell customized travel packages from suppliers …

Travelport announced a multi-year agreement with Europe’s leading online rail and coach ticket provider, Trainline. As part of the strategic agreement, Trainline’s vast range of aggregated content from major rail operators in Europe will be integrated into Travelport+ through Travelport’s desktop user interface Smartpoint, and next-generation API’s. The new collaboration comes as multinational rail options become an increasingly popular mode of transport across Europe for both leisure and business travelers. As demand for environmentally efficient modes of travel grows, global agents connected to Travelport’s next-generation platform, Travelport+, will now be able to manage and book cross-European rail offers as seamlessly as they do with airline and hotel content. Supported by Travelport+, Trainline will strengthen its commitment to making every journey greener by helping its travelers make smarter choices through simplified and enhanced content distribution. “Our collaboration with Trainline Partner Solutions builds upon a common objective of being game changers in the travel industry by providing customers with trusted and agile solutions that remove complexity and enhance the overall travel experience,” said Jason Clarke, Chief Commercial Officer, Travel Partners at Travelport. “Our Travelport+ capability will rapidly integrate Trainline’s technology platform leading to improved retailing capabilities for our global network of travel agents and the most compelling range of European rail content for travelers today.” Champa Magesh, President of Trainline Partner Solutions said, “We are pleased to reach this monumental milestone with Travelport. Making our rail content accessible across the Travelport platform will further enhance our global reach and enable our unique offering to be searched and booked in conjunction with relevant air and hotel content, encouraging greener journeys. Travelport’s technology complements our industry-leading tech offering and we look forward to working …

UAE-based ExploreTECH is set to launch on the 2nd of February 2022 with the aim of connecting hospitality and travel professionals and tech providers from the Middle East and Africa. The platform allows technology providers to showcase their products and services to hospitality professionals who are looking for a go-to source to find and compare tech solutions. A feature of this marketplace also enables professionals to gain subject matter expert advice on navigating challenges and creating long-term strategies to facilitate improvements in business processes and profitability. The first-of-its-kind marketplace offers three different subscription modules for commercial technology providers, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes and budgets. Launching in Arabic and English, the marketplace will bring value to an industry looking for a greater return on investment on current digital offerings. Ralph Melis, Co-founder of ExploreTECH said: “Our goal is to drive a new era of digital transformation across the industry by positioning our platform as the go-to marketplace of the future. By creating such a unified platform, we are enabling a new kind of digital strategy development for users and providers alike.” ExploreTECH taps into a major gap in a sector which is increasingly dependent on effective digital strategies. The user-friendly format allows businesses to gain the maximum benefit from the platform with the easiest assimilation possible. “The feedback we hear is that there is a massive need for a single entity that can act as a medium for accessible and credible tech solutions that can form part of a continuous and consistent strategy for businesses to extend their reach and connect more effectively with their target audiences.” says Antoine Medawar, another co-founder of ExploreTECH. ExploreTECH is creating …

Travelport introduced the latest update to its next-generation platform, Travelport+. Now available, these enhanced, modern retailing tools are paving the way to revolutionize travel retail, modernize the booking experience, and make it easier for agents to offer more choice and deliver better service to their travelers. “As part of our mission to revolutionize the travel industry’s retail experience, we continue to evolve, simplify, and automate the most critical technology tools. Today’s enhanced features empower travel agents to offer more choice, enable greater self-service capabilities for travelers, and simplify the most complex servicing processes,” said Jen Catto, Chief Marketing Officer at Travelport. “All Travelport+ customers enjoy a more modern, digital-first retail experience when connecting through our platform. That includes our desktop customers, who have said that the latest version of Smartpoint has managed to transform mundane travel management tasks into superior servicing opportunities.” More Choice, Richer Content, Better Servicing The evolution of Travelport+ tools and agency capabilities continues with simplified access to enriched travel content from multiple sources, including New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard content. Travelport is the first and only global distribution system (GDS) to sign NDC content distribution deals with all three major European airline groups (Air France-KLM, International Airlines Group (IAG), and Lufthansa Group). The company continues to expand its NDC connections with more than 16 airlines worldwide, including American Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines. Adrian Kazim, Chief Operating Officer at Emirates, commented: “Together Emirates and Travelport are starting their journey to deliver the future of travel retail; kicking off with our first-ever GDS joint agreement that is inclusive of NDC content; that will enable the flexibility to innovate Emirates’ products and deliver more dynamic and personalized …

Ernesto Sanchez Beaumont, Managing Director, Amadeus Gulf  shares insights on how technology has become key to post pandemic travel recovery. After a turbulent two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the appetite for traveling is accelerating, according to recent research by travel technology company Amadeus, with 50% of travelers expecting to have taken a business flight by the end of 2021. The Rebuild Travel survey, which surveyed consumers across the UAE, France, Germany, India, Spain, Russia, Singapore, the UK, and the US, shows the need for human connection has not been dampened by the turmoil of the last two years. In fact, our “Rebuilding Hospitality: Trends in Demand, Data and Technology That are Driving Recovery” study showed global hotel occupancy increased to 60% in July 2021, nearly doubling 2020’s performance for the same month. These numbers mean that global hospitality occupancy had climbed 80% of the way back to pre-pandemic norms of around 75% for the first half of the year. For instance, the UAE registered a 62% hotel occupancy rate in the first half of the year, according to government figures That being said, traveler concerns still exist around issues such as last-minute cancellations and refunds, for example.  There is also a growing demand for apps and solutions where digital health data and travel information can be stored in one place for convenience. Digital transformation Technology plays a prominent role in combatting these concerns, particularly touchless experiences across the customer journey. Eighty per cent of travelers said technology – specifically, touchless technologies – would increase their confidence to fly. Ideally, it would reduce queues and congestion in public spaces and face-to-face/physical contact. More than half (56%) of the travelers …

Sabre Corporation signed a multi-year marketing distribution agreement with Tawfeeq Technologies and Services (TTS). The agreement will see TTS market and distribute Sabre’s products and services to travel companies in Qatar. “Qatar has proven its resilience during these challenging times and the region is recovering at a significant rate,” said Hashim Abdulla Al Hashemi, Board Member, TTS “Speaking with our customers, we understand they are receptive to technology and believe that the way forward requires reliable technology and intelligent solutions.  Sabre is an ideal partner to help empower our customers and provide them with innovative technology and solutions to help drive growth, boost revenue and transform their businesses.” Sabre demonstrated resilience and took proactive steps to enhance its financial position and plan for future growth, including identifying and investing in growth opportunities in the EMEA region. Qatar has been identified as a key growth opportunity and this agreement will play an important role in helping to enable that growth. “Our partnership with TTS will combine Sabre’s strong global technology capabilities with TTS’ deep local expertise to provide the travel agency community with unprecedented innovation and service options,” said Aditya Varma, Regional Director, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “It’s an exciting venture between two companies that share many synergies, and we look forward to growing our business with them and transforming travel in Qatar.”

Sabre Corporation announced a new strategic technology partnership with Visit Oman, the sultanate of Oman online travel-trade gateway’s that connects the country with international destinations. The agreement will enable Visit Oman to leverage Sabre’s world-class technology solutions to further its vision to be Oman’s extensive travel booking gateway that connects the global travel-trade to unlimited discovery in Oman. Furthermore, it will enhance Visit Oman’s stated mission to build strong, strategic, and commercial partnerships in all key source regions, and with Omani suppliers, to deliver one connected booking platform that is designed to enable the unlimited Omani traveler experience. Speaking about the partnership agreement, Shabib Al Mamari, Managing Director – Visit Oman, explained: “This exciting new agreement with Sabre as Visit Oman’s strategic technology partner is a highly beneficial addition to our operations. Sabre enjoys a world-wide reputation as a leader in delivering advanced software and innovative technology solutions to the global travel industry. The partnership paves the way for Visit Oman to further advance its objective to increase high-quality inbound traffic into the country. Essentially, the agreement represents a win-win for all parties involved, but most importantly for Visit Oman, it will serve to help further boost the Omani travel and tourism sector over the short and long term.” As part of Oman Tourism Vision 2040, and with the goal of growing its presence in the international aviation and tourism sector, Visit Oman will use Sabre’s marketplace to promote and sell Oman travel services and personalized travel packages from local travel providers to international markets. Furthermore, Visit Oman will deploy Sabre’s API to deliver intelligent and consultative services to travellers, create compelling shopping and booking experiences and provide an enhanced …

Homegrown Dubai digital travel marketplace, kitmytrip, has announced the launch of the Dubai Touristor, enabling  visitors, tourists and residents alike to unlock the best deals, offers, and value added incentives for an unforgettable Dubai adventure. Starting at just USD 9 (AED 33) and ranging up to USD 35 (AED 128), Dubai Touristor enables experience seekers to seamlessly plan and book their holidays, staycations and experiences with great savings. With access to over 18 attractions and activities, dining offers from over 3,000 restaurants, as well as access to Expo 2020 Dubai, Dubai Metro Pass with AED 19 ($5) credit and 5G Internet with 6GB Data and international calling, Dubai Touristor enables visitors to enjoy amazing experiences for less for an unforgettable Dubai adventure. Travellers visiting Dubai will be able to access kitmytrip via desktop and mobile to gain access to localised content and enhanced, seamless user experience when linking to partner sites to complete their travel bookings. In addition, holidaymakers landing in Dubai can visit the kitmytrip retail store at Dubai International Airport Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 to speak with a customer service representative to gain insight into the best tours and activities. Appealing to the modern digital traveler, kitmytrip launched in 2016 with the goal of simplifying the travel process, providing local information, recommended activities to enjoy, attraction booking opportunities and connectivity under one roof. Born in Dubai and built for the world, kitmytrip is developed by co-founders Ashish Sidhra and Saurabh Bhatnagar who have over 35 years of digital and e-commerce experience between them. Their first product provided wifi connectivity to travellers to the UAE, developed in 2016 and went live in 2017 at Dubai International Airport Terminal …