This is a roundup for product news and announcements for travel DISTRIBUTION in tourism and hospitality for September 2016.
Thursday 29 September 2016:
BMI Regional takes Booking.com
- The European airline will use Booking.com as the hotel giant as its accommodation online channel provider. Passengers will have access to accommodation in all of the carrier's destinations, as well as the existing Booking.com portfolio of one million properties worldwide.
HitIt get NDC nod
- The highest level of the IATA NDC standard has been awarded to the airline IT supplier, meaning it will be able to use the protocols within its distribution platforms between airlines and intermediaries.
Yatra adds another new option
- Indian OTA Yatra is now selling day-use hotels, a few days after it launched a tours and activities channel using BeMyGuest inventory. Nearly 700 properties in 25 cities are making rooms available for three, four or six hours, with Yatra looking to expand this by adding rooms in 40 other cities.
Wednesday 28 September 2016:DerbySoft is working with Lola to provide it with connectivity
- Lola, the on-demand personal travel service, has tapped DerbySoft's Go service to help it establish connections with various suppliers, particularly major hotel chains.
Expedia UK adds train bookings via
SilverRail- The OTA giant's UK flagship brand has added a train booking tab to its homepage. In the coming months, it will expand its inventory and it will begin to appear in the flight booking path and other parts of the booking flow. It is powered in part by SilverRail, which aims to build a global distribution system for rail.
Tnooz reported that this was coming, but it is here now.
Tuesday 27 September 2016:
Amadeus extends Advantage deal
- The travel agency network will continue to use Amadeus as its preferred tech partner until 2019. Advantage cited NDC capability as one of the reasons for its renewal with Amadeus, an extension of its existing agreement from 2013.
Tourico Holidays signs
Globalia agreement
- The Spanish online travel agency group will have access to Tourico's 100,000 portfolio of properties around the world as part of the agreement. Tourico also recently opened an office in Barcelona.
Jumia expands Kenya/Nigeria offer
- African accommodation site Jumia Travels is expanding into packages, starting with Kenya and Nigeria. Jumia Travel was formerly known as Jovago.
Monday 26 September 2016:Travelport has Lots Of Hotels
- Travelport's Rooms & More accommodation platform will integrate the LOH portfolio of content from global hotel chains and independent properties, numbered around 300,000 worldwide. LOH is a subsidiary of Webjet and was created in Dubai in 2012.
Yatra gets activities from
BeMyGuest- The Indian online travel agencies will have attraction tickes, activities and tours on both of its desktop and mobile platforms, all with booking availability. Products from 800 destinations in Asia will be made available to Yatra's customer base as a result of the integration.
South African Airways ancilliaries via
Travelport- Some of the carrier's ancilliary products will now be available to Travelport-connected agencies on its Smartpoint platform, powered by its Rich Content and Branding agreement. Services include paid seats and excess baggage.
Thursday 22 September 2016:Travelport renews Sirena Travel deal
- Sirena, a GDS serving the domestic market in Russia, has signed a new, long-term agreement with Travelport so that its agencies in the country have access to international content. The new agreement also includes use of Travelport's Universal API for software services being built for third parties.
Wednesday 21 September 2016:Sabre sails with Uniworld
- The luxury cruise operator's inventory of tickets and schedules will be made available for search and booking to Sabre-connected travel agencies in the US and Canada. The partnership will run through the Sabre Cruises Web Services platform, allowing agents to compare the operator's product alongside other providers.
Tuesday 20 September 2016:Booking.com rolls out activities on mobile
- The Booking Experiences services has expanded beyond its initial location of Amsterdam in Holland to include London, Rome, Paris and Dubai, with New York expected to go live during the fourth quarter of 2016. Users can search and book activities and things-to-do in each city from their mobile device on the Booking.com app.
eRevMax signs
Africa Sun Hotels- The Kenya-based hotel chain will use eRevMax's Channel Manager Web tool so that it can update rates and inventory across its portfolio in real-time. The chain has eight properties in the country and plans to open more in the East Africa region.
Monday 19 September 2016:RentalCars gets cool with IcelandAir
- The airline is using the Priceline Group-owned RentalCars Connect service to power the car hire channel on its consumer-facing website. RentalCars has vehicles available in 163 countries around the world from 3,000 providers.
Wednesday 14 September 2016:Reservations.com integrate Viator
- The hotel booking platform will use Viator to power a new activities channel on the website. The addition of activities follows similar deals with Allianz and RentalCars respectively to provide insurance and car rental services.
Mark International deals with
Travolutionary- The deal gives Mark International wider access to distribution points outside of its core US market. Its brands include United Airlines Vacations and Southwest Vacations, with 70,000 hotels mostly contained in the US.
Tuesday 13 September 2016:Triptease signs AvailPro deal
- AvailPro's 7,000 hotel customers will get access to the Triptease direct booking platform, including the Price Check widget to show prices for properties from online travel agencies. The package also features a customer abandonment tool so that web visitors are sent a message if they leave a hotel website.
TripHobo gets hotels
- The trip planning website has integrated a metasearch service for hotels, working alongside its existing white label service provided by Booking.com. The metasearch service is powered by HotelsCombined.
Tuesday 6 September 2016:eTraveli gets ancillaries via Amadeus
- The Swedish online travel agency will be able to offer users additional products, such as extra bags and seat selection, during their booking from 113 airlines using the Amadeus Ancillary Services platform. The agreement extends to other sites in the company's family including TravelStart and GoToGate.
Friday 2 September 2016:Paxport signs Blue Air
- The Romanian low-cost carrier has integrated with the FindandBook platform from Paxport, targeting UK leisure customers through tour operating packages. The airline has over 70 destinations around Europe including those in Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Cyprus, Italy and the UK.
Tourico Holidays sells
Nordic Choice Hotels- The accommodation wholesaler will start selling rooms in Nordic's properties via its agency platform. Nordic has 187 hotels in five countries, exclusively in Scandinavia. Tourico says massive demand for properties in the region has come from the likes of China, India, Mexico and Canada.
Thursday 1 September 2016:Time Out gets activities from Viator
- The destination media group will integrate Viator's platform into its websites and mobile apps, allowing visitors to search and book activities and other things to do from each location. The Time Out Group, which covers 107 cities around the world, claims a global digital audience of 111 million visits a month.
Rapibo unites with
eRevMax- The Swedish booking engine provider will partner with eRevMax so that its hotel customers can get wider visibility into the hotel sector and also manage rates and bookings. Rapibo will use the RateTiger platform from eRevMax for the integration and management of hotel inventory.
NB:Travel distribution image via Shutterstock.