Category Archives: Technology

CharterClick.com, a real time online booking portal, focusing exclusively on marine leisure transportation, is launching its first European division in Cyprus. By adding a real time aspect to a long-proven formula of booking tickets and services online, CharterClick completely eliminates a need for any enquiries before the boat or a trip can be booked. All you have to do is set the date, starting time and a duration of the trip, along with the number of people expected on board. The system then will give you a list of all the available options, that all can be instantly booked and paid for with a credit or debit card. “Cyprus launch is an organic continuation of CharterClick’s plan to provide our services anywhere in the world.” says Nick Doroshenko, CharterClick’s Business Development Executive. “After establishing our operations both in UAE and Oman, we continued researching the global yacht market, and instantly realized that we should be moving towards European expansion. Having the biggest yacht charter market share in the world, European business segment sure seems like the right next step for us, if we really want to go global. We chose Cyprus as our first European destination for two reasons – size of the territory and overall location. The island is not that big, which gives us a perfect opportunity to gradually increase the size of our European fleet, while still keeping that personal touch CharterClick has become famous for. And being located in the Eastern Mediterranean region, Cyprus’s tourist flow can still be considered relatively low, in comparison with Italy, Croatia or Spain. But you can surely expect us there as well really soon.”

Travelport and Ethiopian Airlines announced a new multi-year full-content agreement, which sees, Ethiopia’s flag carrier selecting Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform to promote its full inventory across the globe. Under the agreement, Travelport’s technology will support Ethiopian Airlines market and retail their offerings, in a more visual and effective way to a network of over 68,000 Travelport-connected travel agents in over 180 countries worldwide. The two companies have also renewed their long-term operator agreement, which will continue to see Ethiopian Airlines distributing Travelport’s technology in the country. This means that the Ethiopian customer base will continue to take advantage of Ethiopian Airlines’ regional expertise, and Travelport’s revolutionary products and services, including the industry-leading point of sale solution for agencies, Travelport Smartpoint, which was recently upgraded to further boost agent efficiency. Tewolde Gebremariam, Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopian Airlines said: “We are very happy to continue and expand our collaboration with Travelport. As travel technology advances, Travelport will support our business meeting and exceeding travellers personalized needs. Travelport’s innovative solutions and unrivalled choice of travel content provide many opportunities to make our business stronger and we are looking forward to continuing to support the travel industry in Africa.” Rabih Saab, Travelport’s President & Managing Director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and South Asia, commented: “We are delighted to cement a successful 20 year relationship with Ethiopian Airlines, an airline that has established itself as a key component in the development of travel and tourism in the region , by signing both a full content and operator agreement. Travelport is committed to deliver a world of consumer ready content to the travel agent community and travellers, and support the country’s travel and tourism industry. …

MakeMyTrip and InterGlobe Technology Quotient, the official distributor of Travelport in India, have forged a strategic alliance that will allow the OTA access into Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform. Under the agreement, MakeMyTrip can expand the use of Travelport’s technology from the Ibibo Group to their other primary distribution channels starting in the second half of calendar year 2017. Gordon Wilson, Travelport’s President and CEO, commented, “India is a market with enormous growth potential where Travelport, working with our distributor ITQ, has grown in air booking terms by 14 per cent in the first half of 2017 when the GDS air market has grown by 11 per cent. Securing a partnership with the leading online travel agency in the market, with a high growth profile and tremendous track record, gives even further impetus to our plans in the country.” Deep Kalra, Founder, Chairman and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, added, “This is an exciting time for MakeMyTrip and we are delighted to partner with Travelport and ITQ as part of our growth strategy in the service of the travelling Indian consumer.” Travelport currently boasts a portfolio of approximately 400 airlines, including the merchandised content of over half of these carriers such as fares families and ancillary products (paid seat assignments, baggage fees, priority boarding, etc). MakeMyTrip, along with its other entities, Goibibo and redBus, receives over 33 million visits via its desktop and mobile-web platforms and serves over 40 million mobile app active users each month.

Careem, the UAE-based ride hailing app, brings its unique “Kids” service to Abu Dhabi. Launched in Dubai in 2014, Careem Kids is a dedicated car type for passengers travelling with young children. Each car in the Kids fleet comes with an extremely safe and comfortable car seat that can carry a child of upto 30 kg in weight. Further, the Captains of this service are trained by the distributors of the world’s most renowned child car seat brand, Maxi Cosi, to safely install the seat, alter the size of the seat and maintain the seat. Pertaining to the new regulations, Careem issued statements earlier this month to its customers and Captains, informing them that no child under the age of four years would be able to travel without a seat in the future. Also, parents have been advised that Careem Kids can cater for only one child under four years and any additional seats needed would have to be provided by the passenger. The Captains have been asked to enforce the new regulations with immediate effect.

Travelport announced a new agreement with First Diana Travel which will get the leading Lebanese travel agency access to Travelport’s unrivalled choice of travel content. By connecting to the Travelport platform, First Diana will now have intelligent, fast and accurate searching and booking tools to offer to its customers. It would be able to provide content from more than 400 airlines, including low cost and network carriers, more than 650,000 hotel properties and more than 37,000 car rental locations around the world. Bookers at the leisure and full service corporate agencies can use Travelport Smartpoint as their desktop tool to search beyond rate and availability while purchasing personalised travel packages, to drive performance and to increase revenues. Elcheikh Mohamed Ghouzayel, President and Owner of First Diana Travel, commented, “This is an exciting time for First Diana Travel and we’re thrilled to sign our debut deal with Travelport. Having recently extended our operation outside the Lebanese borders, into the Gulf region and Asia, we look forward to differentiating our offerings by utilising Travelport’s technology to provide our customers with a more personalised booking experience.”

In its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, Dubai-based First Central Hotel Suites has now made all its marketing material available online. With the ‘Go Online. Go Paperless’ campaign, the hotel aims to significantly reduce the usage and wastage of paper as well as printing requirements. Rolling out the initiative, Wael El Behi, General Manager of First Central Hotel Suites, said, “Paperless makes a lot of sense, especially in this digital era when everyone seems to have a smartphone and is used to instant information. Therefore, in keeping with our responsible and sustainable environmental practices we have decided to make all our brochures, fact sheets, and media files available for download online. This will tremendously help in cutting down the consumption of paper as well as unnecessary costs. In addition, it will boost efficiency, allowing us to update promotions and information in real time while making it more convenient for our business associates and guests to access those.”

Answering the consumer demand for stronger privacy protection, Careem, the leading ride-hailing service in the Middle East and North Africa, has launched a new call masking feature, which is already live in the UAE and will be introduced in other regional markets, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, within the coming 30 days. The feature gives Careem’s customers the option to keep their phone numbers undisclosed to the Captain (driver), thus adding another layer to customer privacy and security. Call masking is the latest in a series of safety features introduced by Careem in the recent past such as the facial recognition technology.

Amadeus Gulf, a provider of technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, has announced that 1500 travel agents across the region have subscribed to its breakthrough product, Amadeus Voice. A desktop-based app, Amadeus Voice provides users with access to a range of services that complement their daily tasks, enabling them to work more efficiently while keeping in touch with the latest news from their industry. Developed based on Amadeus’ 30-year relationship with travel industry professionals, Amadeus Voice uses push technology to send relevant data updates as needed, in real time, to the users’ computers, giving them access to daily industry news, along with product updates and announcements, so as to keep them informed of the latest innovate solutions; allowing them to keep a track of the major events through the app’s calendar; and providing them with instant notifications on any critical issues. Other features on the app include access to resources via the user’s computer, access to 24/7 Amadeus support hub and Amadeus company news and updates.

Travelport partners with Groundspan to introduce the fully integrated ground transportation solution, Travelport Drive Me. Designed to be the fastest and the most efficient way to book ground transportation services, Drive Me revolutionises car bookings to deliver a seamless experience to travellers. It provides options for travellers who desire a high-quality, personalised and reliable car transfer service experience across their journey. Powered by Groundspan’s global network of over 5,000 car service providers with professional drivers, Travelport Drive Me enables Travelport Smartpoint connected travel agents to seamlessly manage ground transportation, just as they book flights, hotel accommodation or car rental.

The Sizzling Summer app, which helps users to find deals and offers at Meraas destinations quickly and easily, is soon going to collaborate with Careem to provide its customers an enhanced experience. Customers will now be able to see the estimated time of arrival of their closest Careem and also the approximate journey time. Careem, the region’s leading ride hailing app, has revealed that users of the Sizzling Summer app can now book a ride directly through the app, using a new feature designed to make it easier to redeem hundreds of summertime offers at various destinations in Dubai. With new deals being added all the way until the end of September, there is no shortage of promotions at the participating outlets at Meraas’ destinations: City Walk, The Beach, Boxpark, Last Exit, The Outlet Village, Kite Beach and Jumeirah Bay. The seasonal promotion will encompass a variety of offerings from Galeries Lafayette, Valiant Clinic and Nikki Beach to The Green Planet, Leopold’s of London and Qasr Al Sultan, allowing people to eat, shop and relax for less this summer. The Sizzling Summer app will be free to download for iOS and Android via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.