Category Archives: Technology

Nor1, the global leader in hospitality upgrade, upsell, and merchandising technology, has announced the launch of game-changing merchandising features to their flagship product, eStandby. These inventory-based guest communications trigger bookings and upsell, and have driven conversion rates above 25 per cent, creating significant increases in revenues, direct to properties. “Today’s guests demand and deserve absolute transparency in the booking process,” says Jason G. Bryant, Founder and CEO, Nor1. “Accuracy and useful information are key. Our technology is different than anything else on the market because it reflects actual real-time inventory through our two-way integration. We serve up relevant data-driven offers based on a micro-segmented machine learning approach, as well as highlight what is in high-demand by others to prompt guests to make quicker and more confident buying decisions. Even without integration, we still know how many guests have requested an offer, or which offer is most likely to convert based on what similar guests have requested, or what hotels have awarded most.” Powered by machine learning, eStandby and its confirmed upsell sister product eXpress Upgrade, enable hotels to maximise revenue and drive real operational efficiencies to generate the highest ROI on upselling technology in the industry. The new merchandising banner features are designed to inspire guests to convert based on influencial buying triggers such as scarcity of product, popular demand, or customised offers. Jason adds, “By leveraging some of the top performing merchandising and recommendation mechanisms that travellers see and respond to on booking sites like Expedia, our latest enhancements level the playing field for hoteliers in their competition with third parties.”

Following the success of the first ever City-Experience Mini Programme launched by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in collaboration with WeChat, the programme has been further enhanced with the launch of 10 new digital audio tours which are now available for visitors to use while exploring the city. Inviting the users of China’s most popular social networking site to easily access Dubai’s tourist attractions during their stay, the newly re-branded ‘Dubai Mini Assistant’ elevates the existing programme to a more advanced digital maturity, now offering sophisticated chatbot capabilities, powered by Tencent’s AI technology, to provide seamless experiences and services to Chinese travellers. With robust growth in overnight visitors from China in the first quarter of 2019, the new audio tours further add to the ease of accessibility for these tourists when visiting Dubai, allowing them to discover the city’s many historic sites and cultural landmarks through their mobile phones. Reconfirming its continued commitment to one of the emirate’s top source markets, Dubai Mini Assistant forms part of the Department’s city-wide ‘China Readiness’ strategy, focused on designing an enriching and memorable experience for Chinese travellers. Issam Kazim, CEO of Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), said, “China is quickly emerging as one of the fastest growing source markets for Dubai’s tourism industry, with the city welcoming more than 290,000 visitors in the first three months of the year, representing a stellar 13 per cent increase when compared to the same period in 2018.”  

Al Murshed Travel and Tourism has inked an exclusive deal with Sabre Corporation to gain 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. “As its long-standing technology partner, we are committed to supporting its plans to enter the online space and providing industry leading technology to support its growth. This is aligned with our desire to empower travel companies to become true travel consultants, and to grow and compete with global players,” said Abdul-Razzaq Iyer, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. As a key part of its goal to leverage the growth of online travel in the Middle East, Al Murshed Travel is investing in the latest technology and solutions to advance the services and content it offers its travellers. “We are working to leverage its expertise and innovations to grow in the online space and serve our customers even better and more efficiently in the future,” said Salah Al Murshed, Commercial Director, Al Murshed Travel and Tourism.  

One of the leading travel agencies in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Al Khunaizi Travel, has signed a long-term agreement with Sabre Corporation, the leading technology provider to the global travel industry. Under this agreement, Al Khunaizi will continue to access Sabre’s marketplace of more than 400 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers, giving Al Khunaizi the opportunity to sell personalised travel packages from suppliers all over the world. The agency accesses the marketplace through the Sabre Red 360 platform, which features a customisable and intuitive user experience using data-driven insights to guide travel consultants. “New technology is driving changes in consumer behaviour and traveller expectations, and there’s now a greater demand for more personalised services,” said Ammar Al Khunaizi, CEO, Al Khunaizi Travel. “Sabre’s advanced technology and expertise, combined with its skilled team, have helped optimise our business, and cemented our position as a pioneer in delivering new traveller experiences. We look forward to growing with Sabre and delivering a superior personalised travel service to our customers.” “As traveller expectations evolve, so must the travel industry, and travel management companies that embrace advancements in data, online and mobile will continue to stay relevant in today’s fast-changing world,” said Abdul-Razzaq Iyer, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “Our advanced technology and network of travel suppliers will help Al Khunaizi to offer a wealth of choice to its travellers and provide personalised and seamless traveller experiences.”

Sam, FCM’s ground-breaking ‘Smart Assistant for Mobile’ is now available to its clients in the Middle East.  An industry first, Sam is technology that entirely enhances a traveller’s experience whilst on the go. The mobile app blends a powerful mix of Artificial Intelligence with the expertise of real FCM travel consultants to deliver personalised, relevant information to business travellers’ mobile devices through a chat-based interface. The highly interactive, travel-savvy app supports business travellers with all aspects of travel via a conversational interface to answer questions, make recommendations and perform actions before, during and post trip. As of now, two versions of Sam are available to FCM clients and business travellers in the Middle East:  A premium version exclusively for FCM customers with additional features that are configured for these customers as part of their tailored rollout. These premium features include auto-synching the traveller’s bookings, integrated self-booking tool, live chat with an FCM consultant to provide service and make or amend bookings on the move; weather, restaurants, traveller tips and the option for the user to ‘share location’ as part of a mobile duty of care feature.  A basic free version  enables any user to add their trips manually, view weather, traffic and flight alerts, and connect with local ground transport options. Ciarán Kelly, Managing Director Middle East & Africa, FCM Travel Solutions, commented, “As a leading global TMC, we are the first to offer AI to our business travellers, and our Middle Eastern clients are now using Sam’s ground-breaking interactive and supportive features while they are on the move. Sam supports the business traveller, and the Travel Arranger in an organisation, understanding and reacting to their circumstances and enhancing their …

Global Travel and Tourism, one of the leading travel agencies in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has signed an exclusive multi-year agreement with Sabre Corporation to continue use of its innovative technology and platform to manage travel. Under this agreement, Global Travel 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, compete more effectively and grow faster in the region. “As a key customer for Sabre for more than a decade, we’re thrilled to continue to support the future growth and plans of Global Travel,” said Abdul Razzaq-Iyer, Vice President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “We are constantly evolving our technology, enabling us to offer agencies faster innovation and more flexible solutions infused with data-driven insights.” Online travel is growing significantly in the Middle East driven by high adoption for consumer technologies and high expectations from the travel players. Studies indicate that online travel bookings represent approximately 32 per cent of the overall ME travel market and this is projected to reach 40 percent by 2021. “We are delighted to renew our long-standing partnership with Sabre to support our plans to enter the online space,” said Suhaib Kidwai, CEO, Global Travel and Tours. “We have enjoyed a very successful long-standing partnership with Sabre and now it’s time to extend this privilege to use their global expertise to establish our online presence in the region. We are sure Sabre is the right partner to lead us through this transition and trust that it has the technology, expertise and the right team to make this happen.”

Etihad Airways and Swae, an award-winning startup based in Vancouver, have partnered to launch iFikra, an artificial intelligence-powered platform aimed at unlocking the full potential of Etihad’s workforce by enabling every employee to contribute to innovation. Designed to harness the collective creativity of the organisation, the iFikra platform is a pilot aimed at promoting intrapreneurship by allowing employees to propose innovative solutions to address Etihad’s ongoing business challenges and untapped opportunities. Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, launched the new platform, reaffirming the importance of innovation within the organisation. He said, “We recognise that there is an abundance of great ideas right here in our organisation and no one knows our business better than our employees, so we developed this tool to give them the platform they need to innovate.” The new platform leverages artificial intelligence to support and augment written business proposals generated by staff, while enabling an open feedback and collaboration learning loop, based on the principles of transparency and meritocracy, to help escalate the best ideas forward efficiently. For the first time, employees have the power to shape organisational strategy by voting, commenting and providing constructive feedback on their colleague’s ideas, playing a direct role in the decision-making process.  Ideas that ‘graduate‘ from the platform will be provided with seed funding and support through Innovate Lab, Etihad’s innovation lab. The Lab supports rapid trial and iteration of promising ideas and projects, accelerating the delivery of prototypes, pilots, proof of concepts and minimum viable products. Soushiant Zangenehpour, Chief Executive Officer of Swae, said, “We’re excited to partner with Etihad on this integration of Swae. We believe Swae’s platform can help Etihad improve the inclusivity and …

The annual growth in the contribution of AI is expected to range between 20-34 per cent per year across the Middle East, with the fastest growth in the Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt. The $135 billion investment plan in digital transformation set by Vision 2030 will transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the global epicentre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and supercharge the Saudi economy as a global powerhouse in the digital age. A PwC 2018 report estimated that AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030, more than the current output of China and India combined. Of this, $6.6 trillion is likely to come from increased productivity and $9.1 trillion is likely to come from benefits to consumers. PwC’s report estimated that the Middle East is expected to accrue 2% of the total global benefits of AI in 2030. This is equivalent to US$320 billion where the largest gains are expected to accrue to Saudi Arabia as AI is expected to contribute over US$135.2 billion in 2030 to the economy, equivalent to 12.4% of GDP. In relative terms the UAE is expected to see the largest impact of close to 14% of 2030 GDP. AI contribution in Egypt is expected to reach US$42.7 bn in 2030, equivalent to 7.7% of the Egyptian GDP. To meet the demand for having a global platform gathering world class technology experts, the Saudi Emerging Technologies Forum will take place from November 11-13, 2019 in Kempinski Hotel in Riyadh.  The forum is a mega event that will gather over 500 government officials and senior level executives, more than 50 speakers, leading 12 panel discussions with the participation of 900 attendees, …

Bahwan Travel Group, the leading travel company in the Sultanate of Oman, has chosen to renew its technology agreement with Sabre Corporation. Under the new agreement, Bahwan Travel will benefit from Sabre’s latest technology and solutions to accelerate business growth in Oman and the region. This renewal provides Bahwan Travel with continued access to Sabre’s portfolio of innovative technology across the region, including its industry-leading Sabre Red 360 agency solution and the latest data analytics, personalisation and automation capabilities. “As online travel is growing year-over-year, it is imperative for us to invest in our online platform, and provide our customers with a more personalised and seamless travel shopping experience,” said Gururaj, General Manager, Bahwan Travel Group. “Sabre by far is the most advanced technology provider in the travel industry; its global expertise in online travel, impressive dedication, and scale of cutting-edge technology made it a logical choice to help us grow our business, be more efficient, and add value for customers.” “As travellers’ expectations rise in line with technology adoption, Bahwan Travel Group understands the role of technology in serving its tech-savvy travellers,” said Abdul-Razzaq Iyer, Vice-President, Sabre Travel Network Middle East. “Bahwan Travel has a strong vision for growth in the online space and we are working with the team to provide technology, expertise and best practices to build its competitive advantage as a leading online travel agency in the region.” Bahwan Travel Group will have access to Sabre’s marketplace of more than 420 airlines, 750,000 hotel properties, and hundreds of tour operators, rail, car and cruise providers, enabling it to sell personalised travel packages from suppliers all over the world. The agency accesses the marketplace through the new …

Emaar Hospitality Group launched a fully-integrated mobile app that covers all the hotel, hospitality and leisure experiences under the Group. With the single app, users will have seamless access to an extensive range of services including booking of hotels, restaurants, spas, golf and entertainment attractions using their mobile devices. The new app, available for download both on App Store and Google Play, replaces all the earlier Apps that were launched for the individual hotel brands and leisure attractions under Emaar Hospitality Group. Chris Newman, Chief Operating Officer, Emaar Hospitality Group, said, “The launch of the new Emaar Hospitality mobile app highlights our digital transformation focus to enhance the convenience of our guests. Replacing all the other Apps that we had launched years ago, the App further simplifies the user experience and serves as a single point source of information and to access various services. Guests from anywhere in the world can make informed decisions and plan every detail of the lifestyle choices they cherish across our hotels and leisure attractions.” With the Mobile App, guests can explore a comprehensive portfolio of hotel, hospitality and leisure services at Emaar Hospitality Group’s premium luxury hotel brand Address Hotels + Resorts, the upscale lifestyle brand Vida Hotels and Resorts, as well as leisure attractions such as the Arabian Ranches Golf Club, Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club, Dubai Hills Golf Club and Dubai Marina Yacht Club. Guests can also access the services offered by Rove Hotels, developed as a joint venture of Emaar Properties and Meraas via the App. Booking restaurants under the hotels of Emaar Hospitality Group as well as the Spas is also effortless now. The App also enables guests to consider …