Category Archives: Technology

Al Rajhi Aviation has renewed an exclusive partnership with Sabre Corporation, to support its plans to expand regionally and explore opportunities in online travel. This agreement provides Al Rajhi Aviation with continued access to Sabre’s portfolio of innovative technology and its intelligent platform Sabre Red 360, allowing it to effectively harness data and deliver superior content to its travellers. This unique technology will help enable the travel company to differentiate its offering, compete more effectively and grow faster in the region, as well as expand into the online sector.  Naiyer Alam, General Manager, Al Rajhi Aviation, said, “Our renewed partnership will see us leverage Sabre’s global expertise to enrich our online travel presence, provide exceptional travel experiences and expand our reach beyond Saudi Arabia.” “Saudi Arabia is a unique market with great potential that requires customised solutions to meet the high expectations of its travellers,” said Abdul-Razzaq Iyer, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “We look forward to continue working with Al Rajhi Aviation to provide them with the latest solutions in data, business intelligence, online and mobile capabilities to provide a world class travel experience for both online and offline travel.”

dnata Travel signed a multiyear agreement with Sabre Corporation. The five-year deal will represent an extended, broader relationship between the two companies in the Middle East. Under this agreement, dnata Travel Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Partner Network will continue to access Sabre’s portfolio of innovative technology and its intelligent platform Sabre Red 360, allowing it to harness more data, content and flexibility to differentiate its offering from more than 420 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers. “Sabre’s global expertise, extensive knowledge and understanding of the dynamic global travel eco-system make it the partner of choice,” said Alan William, VP Air & Distribution Partnerships, dnata Travel. “We expect future collaboration on accelerated innovation, operational simplification and gains in digital user experience as a result of this expanded relationship.” Abdul Iyer, VP ME, Sabre Travel Network Middle East, said, “Our new agreement will deliver technology and solutions that fulfill latest industry trends such as NDC and virtual payments. dnata Travel has a strong strategy, and its roadmap to use the latest technologies to create a more personalised travel experience which aligns completely with the investments Sabre is making to help agents deliver a more seamless traveller experience.”

Sabre Corporation and Accor will be creating the first unified central reservation (CR) and property management (PM) platform for the global hospitality industry. The collaboration intends to develop a new full service property management capability and enrich its existing central reservation and limited service property management systems. These capabilities will combine within a new unified cloud-native, highly-flexible platform that will be built for and available to hoteliers across all property classes and geographic regions. In this context, Accor would be Sabre’s newest enterprise hospitality customer, adopting Sabre’s industry-leading SynXis Central Reservation System and, ultimately, the new global technology platform for all its hospitality brands and geographies. “We know our customers have historically had limited options in this area, and we are taking the lead to deliver the solutions that hoteliers have repeatedly told us they both want and need. Once developed, this offering will power a new generation of retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions that will enable hotels to drive revenue growth beyond traditional sources and offer unique personalised services to their guests around the world,” said Sean Menke, President and CEO of Sabre Corporation. “Partners like Sabre are essential to helping us effectively leverage existing and new technology to further accelerate our net supply growth and lower costs for our hotel owners as well as for the Group,” said Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO for Accor. “For Accor, the new technology will bring an opportunity to further and significantly enhance the Group’s core business activities including hotel distribution, guest recognition and owner relationships,” said Gilles de Richemond, Chief Information Officer, Accor. “We expect that the unified CR/PM platform will allow Sabre to better meet the needs of enterprise hoteliers …

Amadeus and Seera Group have strengthened their partnership to drive technology innovation in the region’s tourism sector. This follows a year of successful partnership between the two leading entities that led to significant digital transformation of travel and tourism services offered by Seera Group and helped enhance its all-round business efficiency. With the renewed partnership, Seera Group works closely with Amadeus to strengthen its online business further, integrating digital touch-points across all its operations, including its flagship corporate and government travel business, elaa. As the travel tech provider across Seera’s diverse portfolio of services, Amadeus brings cutting-edge innovation and state-of-the-art tech tools that enhance customer service standards and bring higher operational efficiency across the Group. In other highlights of the successful partnership, Amadeus is supporting Seera Group in expanding its omni-channel consumer travel business, Almosafer, across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and beyond, in addition to the ongoing digitisation of booking services for corporate and government travel via elaa. Amadeus has been an ongoing strategic partner of Seera Group and has provided a host of technical support that helped consolidate the Group’s online business through tools such as Touchless that scaled up its efficiency of operations. Seera will implement the latest Amadeus solutions relating to hotel content, virtual credit card payment capabilities, fare optimisation solutions and content via NDC (New Distribution Capability) connectivity. The Group will also implement new products by Amadeus to enhance operational efficiency.

Requests for assistance for airline passengers with intellectual disabilities have seen an increase of 342 per cent in Middle East and Africa, following a 10-month long campaign to raise awareness of a dedicated Special Service Request (SSR) booking code by travel technology company, Travelport. SSR codes are used in the airline industry to communicate traveller preferences or needs to airlines. They are delivered through standardised four-letter codes defined by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The DPNA SSR code can be used by travel agents, among others, to alert airlines when a passenger has intellectual or developmental disability and needs assistance.   As part of its campaign to raise awareness of the DPNA SSR code, Travelport has shared educational ‘sign-on alerts’ and graphical ‘prompts’ more than 10 million times with hundreds of thousands of travel agents across the world through Travelport Smartpoint, its flagship Point of Sale solution that is used by travel agents, among others, to search and book airline seats, hotel rooms and more. The digital media used to reach travel agents is typically sold by Travelport to travel providers, like airlines and hotels, as advertising space.   Mark Meehan, Travelport’s Global Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Operators, said, “SSR codes play an important role in helping travel agents effectively and officially communicate the needs of travellers to IATA airlines, so it’s important agents are aware of the codes at their disposal and the kind of support that can be requested.”

Hotelbeds launches partnership with RateGain, the market leader in hospitality and travel technology solutions. RateGain will provide Hotelbeds with ‘Parity+’ – an advanced end-to-end rate integrity management solution that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to track integrity issues in real time – to help identify for its hotel partners cases of opaque rates intended for offline channels being sold in other channels. Hotelbeds has chosen to work with RateGain following a competitive RFP to find the world’s leading third party provider of rate integrity technology and monitoring tools. Entering into this agreement forms part of Hotelbeds’ commitment to take on responsibility for leading the fight against rate integrity abuse on behalf of the owners of the 180,000 properties that it partners with. As part of this Hotelbeds has created a team dedicated to monitoring rates and invested in automated technology unavailable elsewhere in the market that uses data analytics to track travel sellers’ flows. More recently Hotelbeds has introduced comprehensive measures and technology solutions, including a strict ‘three strikes’ policy for channels that violate distribution rules; tools that allow full traceability of rates; and the data-driven segmentation of customer channels to more closely align them with the distribution strategies of hotel partners. Carlos Muñoz, Managing Director at Hotelbeds comments, “This year we have made significant progress in fighting rate integrity abuse on behalf of our hotel partners and I am pleased to confirm that incidences are now down to just 0.01%.”

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has announced the launch of dedicated QR code plaques in 54 popular locations across the emirate, enabling visitors to discover more about the city’s iconic sites and landmarks by adding multimedia dimensions to self-guided tours. The quick response digital barcodes can be easily scanned by any smartphone, navigating users to dedicated microsites on the VisitDubai website for background information about each location. The multilingual microsites feature a range of content including images and interactive videos. The project works in line with Dubai’s ‘Smart City’ initiative to deliver an efficient, seamless and impactful city experience for residents and visitors through the provision of innovative digital services. The QR plaques help with the reduction of waste generated by printed tour guide books while enhancing the experience of tourists to the city by leveraging Dubai’s powerful tourism website, connecting users to popular points of interest. The QR codes can now be found across the city, including Gold Souk, Naif Souk, Textile Souk, Spice Souk, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU), Ibn Battuta Mall, Dragon Mart, Ski Dubai, At The Top-Burj Khalifa, City Walk, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Marina Walk, Etihad Museum, Sunset Beach, Zabeel Park, Safa Park, Creek Park, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, Sheikh Saeed House, Kite Beach, Alserkal Avenue, the Jumeirah Mosque, to name a few. Commenting on the launch of the QR codes, Yousuf Lootah, Executive Director – Tourism Development & Investments said, “As the travel sector gains momentum, disruptive innovation remains at the forefront of enhancing international visitation to Dubai – and is a core element of Dubai Tourism’s ‘digital, mobile and social first’ agenda. As such, the launch of the …

The standard of digital experiences offered by airlines, hotels and travel agents now carries significant influence over the booking decisions of young travellers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the findings of Travelport’s Global Digital Traveler Research 2019, which surveyed 23000 people from 20 countries. Three-quarters of millennial travellers in the UAE now actively consider whether an airline (77%) or hotel (76%) offers a good digital experience when making a booking. Half (51%) also get frustrated when booking information isn’t available round-the-clock on mobile devices, such as smartphones and smartwatches. Kathryn Wallington, Head of Account Management, United Arab Emirates, at Travelport, said, “Demand for high-quality digital experiences is now exceptionally high among millennial travellers in the UAE. Today, a good digital experience should really be delivered as standard and differentiation should be sought through excellence.” According to the Travelport’s study, when researching a trip, nearly all millennial travellers in the UAE (93%) have now reviewed videos and photos posted by travel brands on social media and one third (34%) ‘nearly always’ do this. When booking a flight online, two fifths (42%) of millennial travels in the UAE today want to personalise their experience. It also revealed that three fifths (60%) of UAE millennials want virtual reality experiences to help them plan their trips in a better way. Other findings include how two thirds (69%) of millennial travellers in the UAE have used voice search to help them manage travel, with one quarter (22%) ‘nearly always’ using the technology for this.  

Saudi Arabian travellers are leading the global demand for high-tech travel according to the findings of Travelport’s 2019 Global Digital Traveller Research, which surveyed 23,000 people from 20 countries with the following findings; 74% of Saudi Arabian travellers require concierge services such as local maps and restaurants on their smartphones (60% globally); 71% prefer in-room technology such as smart TVs and Bluetooth speakers from accommodation (60% globally); Nearly 74% of Saudi travellers consider it important whether an airline offers a good digital experience when booking a flight; Like global peers, 76% of Saudi Arabian travellers prioritise value over cost (86% globally); Customer service was however highlighted as the top priority to travellers in Saudi Arabia (78%) Technology, however, is not always the answer with two fifths (40%) of Saudi Arabian travellers saying they find, not being able to speak to a human frustrating. This is similar to the feedback from 42% of global respondents. Commenting on the findings of the research, David Gomes, Head of the Middle East and Africa, Air Travel Partners, said, “Saudi Arabian travellers want a digitally-savvy travel experience which is as engaging as the experience provided by best retailers. At Travelport, we will continue to accelerate developments in all these areas, to help the industry keep pace with the rapidly evolving needs of the modern traveller.”

New online research by Sabre Corporation has revealed that 59% per cent of Middle Eastern adults would pay between $101 – $500 on extras that personalise their travel journeys. The report also provided insight into the pain points, trends and opportunities for the Middle Eastern travel industry. The research highlighted a significant retail opportunity for travel providers of the 3,090 people surveyed. The study, which compiled insights from 3,090 people online across five countries in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan and Lebanon) was revealed at Sabre Space Jordan, an industry event that brought together experts and leaders from airlines, travel agencies and government officials from across the Middle East to network and learn about the latest travel and technology trends. Salman Syed, Vice President EMEA at Sabre said, “To align with today’s travellers, airlines, hotels, travel agencies and even corporate buyers must think and behave like true retailers. They need to analyse consumer behaviour and market data to better target future offers and fulfill as many of the traveller’s needs as possible.”  Sabre’s research showed that 43% of the Middle Eastern adults want personalised travel offerings and services around their needs, expectations and previous experiences. When thinking about what this personalisation looks like, the majority (40%) of those surveyed wanted recommendations based on their budget, whilst 30% wanted suggestions of holiday extras that would be of genuine interest to them when asked what they would want airlines to do for them in the next 5 years. Sabre’s report showed a significant opportunity within the online travel space in the Middle East, as 48% of those surveyed would look online for travel inspiration for flights or hotels, which may …