Category Archives: Technology

Travelport has announced a new multi-year, global full content agreement (FCA) with Turkish carrier Atlasglobal Airlines. Under the agreement, Atlasglobal will now offer Travelport-connected agencies in over 180 countries, servicing hundreds of millions of consumers around the world, real-time access to its fares and inventory-through the Travel Commerce Platform. The airline also joins over 180 airlines now live on Travelport’s industry leading merchandising solution, Travelport Rich Content & Branding, which enables the airline’s fare families to appear on travel agency screens, on a fully integrated basis, in exactly the same way it displays fares and ancillaries on its own website. Operating in the region since 2001, and under the name Atlasglobal since 2015, the airline has a legacy of innovation in customer service and passenger quality and comfort, having introduced unique initiatives such as the “Flying Chef” and “Fly & Bus” services for its passengers. Atlasglobal operates a network across three continents and flies to almost 50 destinations. Travelport’s unsurpassed ability to provide detailed product descriptions- including images and related ancillary options- will support Atlasglobal in demonstrating its unique attributes to the 68,000 Travelport connected travel agents around the world. The merchandising solution also offers the airline the ability to send tailored offers to travel agents and corporates to help drive additional bookings and revenues per seat.

Following the successful Las Vegas Customer Forum earlier this year, Sabre Hospitality Solutions last week (October 10-12) invited key hotel players from across the region to its EMEA Customer Forum in Abu Dhabi. The event brought together Sabre’s hospitality clients with industry experts and technology gurus to identify and discuss the most relevant trends impacting the industry and explore in-depth some of the most avant-garde innovations on the horizon. Keynote speaker Jonathan MacDonald, founder of Thought Expansion Network (TEN) gave insights on “Radical Disruption: How to turn risk into opportunity”. Sabre unveiled the latest innovative technology solutions developed to drive successful hotel strategies and increase business and asked participating hoteliers for feedback and comments.

Travelport has signed a new multi-year agreement with East West Travel Group, an Egypt-based travel agency. The East West Travel Group has over 30 years of operational experience, and specializes in corporate travel. The East West Travel Group has also now become the sole representative of BCD Travel in Egypt. BCD Travel is a leading global corporate travel management company with over 13,000 employees worldwide and total sales in 2015 of $25.4 billion. To mark the occasion Travelport sponsored a partnership event with East West Travel Group and BCD Travel in Egypt at the Baron Palace Garden, a historic attraction in the suburb of Heliopolis, Cairo. The event brought together some of the leading players from the Egyptian travel industry from the airline, hotel and government spaces.  The event was attended by His Excellency Mohamed Yehia Rashed, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism. As a result of the agreement, East West Travel Group and BCD Travel will now be able to access and utilize Travelport’s unrivalled travel content – including the branded fares and ancillaries from the world’s leading airlines and low cost carriers, as well as over 650,000 hotel properties, all from within the travel agent’s workflow. Travelport has established itself as a key technology partner in the Egyptian travel industry and today’s announcement with East West Travel and BCD Travel further reinforces Travelport’s brand awareness in the region.

Sabre has integrated its SynXis Central Reservations and TripCase, its mobile App used by travellers. Reservations made through the Sabre GDS and the SynXis CRS will automatically flow into the TripCase messaging channel, making it easy for hoteliers to message travellers with contextually relevant and personalised mobile messages featuring unique offers, upgrades and offers for hotel amenities including spas and restaurants. With this integration, hoteliers are able to engage with guests via their mobile device before, during and after their arrival on property. This real-time personal communication will help hoteliers build their brand image, increase loyalty, and drive incremental revenue. Sabre has a long track record for being on the cutting edge of exploring new technologies and TripCase is an example of that ingenuity. With a five-star rating in app stores, TripCase is used by millions of travellers to manage all of their trip details in a single place.

Hala Abu Dhabi, the destination management company of the Etihad Aviation Group (EAG), has been selected as the exclusive shore excursions and activities provider for Sir Bani Yas Island and Beach Oasis, the latest cruise destination stop in the UAE for the 2016/2017 season. The announcement was made at the Seatrade Cruise Med conference, being held between September 21 and 23 at the International Trade Fair and Congress Centre in Tenerife. Darren Peisley, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Hala Group, said: “We’re delighted to have been selected for this exciting development. Sir Bani Yas Island will be one of the best new locations to enter the cruise market this year. By offering customised add-ons including flights, visa processing, accommodation, in-house operated tours and safaris alongside multi-lingual tour guides, Hala is able to provide a one-stop-shop solution to cruise operators in the Gulf.”

Travelport, a leading Travel Commerce Platform providing distribution, technology, payment and other solutions for the global travel industry, announced the creation of a new organization, Travelport Digital, as part of its strategic focus on the fast-growing digital economy.  At the same time Travelport has appointed a Chief Customer and Marketing Officer, a newly created role that will further heighten Travelport’s focus on delivering a marketing leading customer experience. The new Travelport Digital organization will optimise the investments that Travelport has made into various digital assets and products over the past couple of years with the aim of growing Travelport’s range of digital services.  The formation of the function builds on Travelport’s acquisition last year of MTT, the leading provider of mobile and digital solutions to the travel industry, as well as its investment in Locomote, a corporate travel management system.  Bryan Conway, a seasoned Travelport executive has been appointed Head of Travelport Digital.

Insignia Worldwide Group has introduced Traverger – the region’s first digital brand engagement agency dedicated to the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Traverger launches to propel travel and destination brands to the forefront of online conversations in the age of hyper-competition and fragmented attention. Traverger equips clients to engage with increasingly elusive guests and time-poor travellers with powerful solutions born at the convergence of technology, public relations, social media and online advertising. “Travel and hospitality brands have complex and unique marketing needs that are different from traditional FMCG products. Online visibility and engagement is at the heart of driving innovation in brand communication and marketing. Our expertise in strategic planning and understanding of key feeder market dynamics is complimented by our insights on how potential guests or customers interact with online brand messages,” said Gaurav Sinha, Founder & CEO, Insignia Worldwide Group, the parent company that owns and operates Traverger.

The Middle East awards programme, Amber pioneered by the Al Tayer Group, has launched a new mobile app in the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to enable fast travel and hotel deals across GCC. The app introduces many benefits to customers, who can now enroll into the programme from anywhere, at their convenience, and view the latest offers across the Al Tayer Group portfolio of brands. Eliminating the need to carry a plastic card, members can begin to shop, earn and redeem points with the use of their digital card. The application will also feature daily updates on the best in fashion, beauty, lifestyle, hospitality, travel and cars across the Al Tayer Group portfolio. All masterfully curated by expert editors from local and global sources, the aim is to offer exclusive, original and aspirational content that serves as a source of inspiration to its readers. Members can also explore all Amber participating stores for opening times and locations; avail of convenient customer service with a click to call Amber Assist; and be the first to receive invitations to events and notifications of exclusive members’ only promotions and other privileges. The Amber application is available in English and Arabic and can be downloaded via the Play store on android phones and the App Store on iPhone devices.

Car booking app CAREEM has announced its partnership with Etisalat as it launches its new payment platform – CAREEM Wallet – for booking car rides. CAREEM Wallet allows the company’s customers to pay for car rides using Etisalat’s Reward points or choose to earn Etisalat Reward points as they use CAREEM services. Etisalat, the leading telecoms operator in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, is the first partner to integrate into the ‘CAREEM Wallet’. The announcement is the first of its kind in a series of several partnerships which the car hailing booking app is currently working on to integrate into its new platform. Khaled ElKhouly, Chief Consumer Officer, Etisalat said that they are excited to offer their Rewards members an innovative means to earn and burn Etisalat Reward points in partnership with CAREEM. Now their members can enjoy free taxi rides by simply redeeming their accumulated reward points or earn more reward points every time onboard a CAREEM taxi. This is yet another endeavor from them to provide enhanced value to their customers for being with Etisalat. Selim Turki, Product Market Fit Director , Careem, stated that they were delighted to have Etisalat on board as one of their key partners. Both CAREEM and Etisalat are on the same page when it comes to understanding the need for innovative new products that meet the unique needs of the consumer. CAREEM will continue to work with leading partners in the region such as Etisalat to offer ground-breaking solutions that aim to simplify our people’s lives,” said Selim Turki, Product Market Fit Director, CAREEM. The process is simple, all customers have to do is go to the ‘Wallet’ screen inside their …

Amadeus IT Holding has reported an adjusted profit of €494.5 million for the first half of 2016, recording a growth of 17.9 per cent compared to the same period of 2015. This was supported by a revenue increase of 15.1%, to €2,275.5 million, and EBITDA growth of 16.5%, to €907.1 million. Free cash-flow generation grew 23.2% in the first half, with the debt ratio at 1.31x EBITDA. They continue to invest in making the GDS the most efficient system for the distribution of travel products, as shown by the success of our merchandising solutions: 157 airlines trust us for the distribution of their ancillaries through the direct and indirect channels. The Airline IT business has also experienced strong growth in the first half of 2016. The number of passengers boarded using their Altéa platform grew by 10.9% supported by the organic growth of their customer base and new customer implementations. This strong performance was complemented by the acquisition of Navitaire from Accenture, finalised in January. Thanks to its contribution, the total number of passengers boarded using Amadeus’ PSS systems increased by 75.7%, to 622.4 million. At the same time, multiple global airlines continued to contract our solutions. Malaysia Airlines chose Amadeus as the their new PSS provider; Singapore Airlines contracted the full suite of Amadeus Revenue Management solutions; Lufthansa Group contracted Amadeus Altéa Departure Control Flight Management for all of its network airlines; and Avianca became the launch partner for Amadeus Anytime Merchandising.