Category Archives: Technology

Sabre Corporation expects to achieve several critical milestones on its journey to offer NDC-enabled solutions by the end of the year. Intelligent retailing that leverages Sabre’s data, depth and industry leadership will bring value to airlines and agencies, and customers will have the ability to offer personalised shopping experiences similar to world-class retailers in other industries. “NDC standards introduce tremendous opportunity for Sabre’s business, our customers and the industry overall – to the ultimate benefit of travelers as we model a new and differentiated travel experience,” said Kathy Morgan, Sabre vice president of strategic initiatives. “To bring the promise of NDC to life, our capabilities will go beyond shopping and booking and will integrate with the retailing, distribution and fulfillment systems that support the travel ecosystem,”Morgan said. Morgan leads Sabre’s company-wide effort to invest Beyond NDC across its retailing, distribution and fulfillment solutions. Sabre is uniquely positioned to deliver technology that shapes a traveller’s end-to-end journey from offer creation through fulfillment. In 2018, Sabre plans to launch new service-enabled APIs and enhanced capabilities in the Sabre Red Workspace that will allow customers to shop and book NDC content alongside traditional content. To prepare for this functionality, the company is already working closely with customers including Flight Centre Travel Group, one of the world’s largest travel agency groups, and Sabre expects to begin a pilot program with additional agency and airline customers in the third quarter this year.

Huawei Consumer Business Group (CBG) has partnered with Wego to integrate the travel app into Huawei smartphones. The new Huawei devices in the Middle East will come pre-installed with the Wego app, which will help simplify travel shopping experiences for Huawei device users. “The world of travel and hospitality has entered a new era of m-commerce, as more than 60% of travellers rely entirely on smartphone applications when making their travel plans. Pre-installing the Wego app into smartphones is part of our continuous efforts to enable these travellers to get the best deals and options when shopping for their holiday,” said Mamoun Hmedan, Wego Managing Director for MENA and India. “Huawei was an obvious choice for us to partner with; given the company’s global pedigree, strong resonance with the customers, and immense R&D capabilities.” Starting May this year, all Huawei smartphones EMUI 5 and above bundled with the Wego app will be made available across stores in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Pakistan. “We are excited for this partnership as Wego has been a market leader, bringing seamless travel services to the MENA region. Now Huawei device users can access Wego through one click as Wego would be available on all Huawei device EMUI 5 and above,” said Managing Director, Huawei Consumer Cloud Services. Huawei mobile services ecosystem has been simplifying device users’ daily life through technology by providing device user best in class travel services.

Hyper Island, a Swedish pioneer that brings transformation in businesses and empowers employees with new skills is now offering its executive business educational programmes and innovation strategies in the United Arab Emirates and Middle East & North Africa. “We are absolutely delighted to launch a presence in the UAE and the MENA region. Hyper Island has over twenty years of experience in the educational and business innovation sector with global brands across the world. We have learning hubs in Stockholm, Singapore, London, Sao Paulo and New York City. It was only a matter of time for us to offer our services in the UAE. We’ve followed recent studies by the World Bank and World Economic Forum and have come to realise that the vision of the nation and the need of the hour in the UAE requires innovative talent development strategies and tools to ensure growth in the quality of the work force in the region,” says Per Vidar Lundberg, Client Partner at Hyper Island. A recent study conducted by the World Bank cited that if GCC countries expect to succeed in transitioning to highly productive, knowledge based economies, they must develop a system that can transform existing learning to growth-inducing innovations.

Travelport has announced the signing of a multiyear agreement with Qantas Airways that includes distribution of the Australian national carrier’s content and integration into Qantas’ recently announced NDC platform, the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP). Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding merchandising solution has been deployed, giving over 65,000 of Travelport-connected travel agencies globally access to images of cabins and meals. These agents will also be able to book ancillaries such as extra legroom seating. Stephen Shurrock, Chief Commercial Officer, Travelport commented, “This agreement is testament to Qantas’ commendable forward-looking vision. Whether it’s the deployment of Rich Content and Branding or our new NDC capabilities, Travelport is uniquely equipped to support Qantas in optimizing content distribution globally.” Travelport is the first operator of a global distribution system to be granted the highest certification by IATA for its New Distribution Capability (NDC) airline distribution technology. With this, Travelport is well-positioned to support the QDP, improving the flexibility of content distribution, as the airline becomes one of the first to deploy NDC content later this year. It is the only such company to be cited by Qantas as an early adopter.

A recent report on ‘Middle East Consumer Travel Report 2018’ co-sponsored by Amadeus, explored an overview of the travel industry in Saudi Arabia and the latest highlights entailing consumer activities and mobile trends in the Middle East. Travellers from Riyadh showed an increase in mobile bookings in the Kingdom with 32%, followed by Jeddah with 31%. More than 40% of travellers in the region organise their trips online, 33% travellers today “actively search” for discounts online during the shopping process and 57% of travellers in the region book their flight fares only a week prior to their travel dates. The report acknowledges that the Middle East travel market is incredibly diverse when it comes to travel patterns. While value is a key driver in travel decisions, more people admit to being more influenced by friends, family and colleagues (53%) than by search engines and review sites (47%) or actual travel agents (31%). Eng. Nashat Bukhari, General Manager, Amadeus Saudi Arabia said, “We are pleased with the significant rise in the consumer’s online travel trend in the region and as the industry continues to evolve, we will continue the deliver the latest cutting-edge technology dedicate to alter the shape of the travel industry in the region.”  

Amadeus has announced the renewal of its partnership with Khimji’s House of Travel, a leading travel agency in Oman. The agency will be able to leverage Amadeus’ flagship products to deliver a superior level of service experience to their customers, making their journeys seamless during the whole trip process. Amadeus will provide Khimji’s House of Travel with solutions such as Amadeus Fare Optimiser, enabling travel agents to discover the best flight fares; Amadeus Online Corporate Traveller to manage corporate travellers, reduce business travel costs, increase policy compliance, and streamline the travel management processes; Amadeus e-Power to drive its online aspirations and provide rich contents 24*7 to customers; and Amadeus Travel Alerts Notifier, which keeps travellers informed about their booking up to their arrival back home, and more. Cashio Vettom, General Manager, Khimji’s House of Travel, said, “With this partnership, we are expanding our core capabilities to provide the best experience to our customers by using automated systems and programmes that increase our own efficiencies. We’re looking forward to sharing the benefits of this partnership with consumers across the Sultanate.” According a recent report revealed by the Colliers International, Oman’s tourism industry is expected to grow by 13 per cent between 2018 and 2021.

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Fliggy, the online travel service platform of Alibaba Group. Aimed to boost the number of Chinese tourists visiting Dubai, the MoU was signed by Issam Kazim, CEO, Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM) and Jerry Hu, VP, Fliggy and Alibaba Group, as part of a broader long-term alliance discussion at the Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou in China. The MoU entails among other aspects, collaboration between the partners to deliver an enhanced travel experience for Chinese visitors to the emirate by providing easy access to Dubai’s travel products and information, initiating a payment scheme, etc. In addition, Dubai Tourism would continuously maintain and update the ‘Dubai Destination Mall’ page on Fliggy, providing a comprehensive overview of the city’s tourism proposition to the broad customer base that Fliggy delivers. As a major online travel platform in China, Fliggy is a strategic travel partner for Dubai Tourism within China, allowing Dubai’s entire travel and tourism ecosystem to set up and operate their own ‘shop’ on the Fliggy virtual marketplace. Additionally, being extremely popular amongst the younger generation of Chinese tourists, Fliggy is an even more relevant partner for Dubai as there is a clear priority to build a strong base within this segment as potential visitors to the city.

Travelport has secured a new long-term technology partnership with Rehlat.com, which includes use of the company’s cutting-edge data analytics tool, Travelport Competitor Insights. The agreement will make Rehlat.com the first travel agency in the Middle East to benefit from the product. Rehlat.com will use Travelport Competitor Insights to benchmark booking performance against the market and its peers. The company will also use the tool to understand current and upcoming travel trends, identify behavioral changes, and explore how these vary across geographies. In addition, under the new agreement, Rehlat.com will continue to utilise Travelport’s open platform and Universal API technology to ensure it has access to the broadest and most current inventory of high-quality travel content and maintains its ability to deliver ‘on demand’ dynamic pricing and micro-segmentation of offers based on individual needs. With over 250 airlines signed up to use Travelport’s unique merchandising technology, the new agreement will also see Rehlat.com benefit from being able to display, gain powerful information around, and sell branded fare families and ancillary products (such as paid seat assignments, baggage fees, priority boarding, etc.) from these airlines.

Travelport has announced a new multi-year technology and content agreement with Norwegian travel agency chain, G Travel. With 27 agencies in Norway, six agencies in Sweden and an additional 17 global agencies, G Travel is one of the most expansive travel companies in the Nordics. Aided by a tailor-made solution by Travelport, G Travel consultants will gain access to intelligent, fast and accurate search of high-quality content from over 400 airlines, 650,000 hotel properties, and 35,000 car rental locations. With over 250 airlines signed up to use Travelport’s unique merchandising technology, the company will also benefit from being able to display, gain insights from and sell branded fare families and ancillary products (such as paid seat assignments, baggage fees, priority boarding, etc.) from these airlines. In addition, as part of the agreement, G Travel will use Travelport Business Insights, a cutting-edge data analytics tool that provides near real-time access to actionable insights from a vast range of data sources to help it optimize supplier contracts, enhance customer service and improve operational efficiencies. As the only global distribution system (GDS) provider to be certified by IATA as a “Level 3” Aggregator under its New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiative, Travelport will soon benefit the company further by creating NDC connections with airlines as they become available.

Travelport has announced a trio of new agreements with travel agencies in the UK, the Middle East, and Singapore to deploy Trip Assist, Travelport’s mobile app for agencies. The new agreements come after the successful launch of Trip Assist in the Middle East in April 2018 and will give the customers of UK-based Omega Travel Limited, the United Arab Emirates-based Cozmo Travel, and Singapore-based Pegasus Travel a personalized service at their fingertips wherever they are on their journey. Trip Assist provides agencies with a fully branded mobile engagement solution that enables them to support, engage and connect with their travellers at every stage of their journey. Incorporating smart itinerary management capabilities and the ability to create agency defined messages; Trip Assist empowers agencies to build stronger relationships with travellers. For travellers, Trip Assist is a personal digital travel concierge service that provides day of travel assistance, real-time trip alerts and click to call agent support. Niklas Andreen, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Global Hospitality and Digital at Travelport said, “Mobile done right, allows agents to move from passive itinerary management to being a true proactive partner of the travellers throughout their journey. Travelport is proud to be working with such pioneering travel agencies as Omega Travel, Cozmo Travel and Pegasus Travel Management on redefining the role of the travel agency through mobile engagement.”