This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for October 2015.
Tuesday 27 October 2015:
Etihad and Adobe unite for cloud IT services
- The partnership is aimed at improving the UAE-based carrier's digital marketing capabilities, giving it Adobe Marketing Cloud and Creative Cloud services to work across its passenger "experience" strategy. The agreement will also cover some functions within its direct sales, marketing, social media, cargo and loyalty divisions.
Rocketrip extends the browser
- The Google Chrome-only tool allows users to create a "Budget To Beat", whereby they book travel on participating various websites and accrue rewards for future trips. The tool will work whether their company requires booking through an online booking tool or allows open market booking.
Monday 26 October 2015:Locomote has space for Regus
- The Australia-based expense and travel management service (part owned by Travelport) will be integrated into the Regus workspace rental system. Regus employees (2,500 locations in 106 countries) will be able to track and organise travel itineraries, bookings, procurement and other tools.
Monday 19 October 2015:Open Destinations adds Hilton direct connect
- Tour operating software business Open Destinations has signed a deal with Hilton Hotels which sees the hotel chain's 4,400 properties available to subscribers of Open Destinations' Travel Studio reservation platform, via a direct connection with Hilton.
SITA secures
Jet for enhanced Airfare Insight
- Indian airline Jet Airways has signed an extension to its current deal with SITA's Airfare Insight product, part of the SITA Horizons portfolio. The latest version of Airfare Insight includes an ‘All in Fare’ option that lets airlines respond to the actual price the customers pays, inclusive of all taxes, fees and charges.
TripCase offers local language version for North Asia
- Sabre's mobile travel management tool TripCase is now available in four Asian languages - simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese, reflecting " a strong latent demand for native language versions of the app."
Hotelogix and
HotelRunner form partnership
- Hotelogix, a cloud-based PMS for independent hotels backed by Accel Partners, has announced a strategic partnership with HotelRunner, a sales and marketing tech firm. The idea is that Hotelogix' PMS will link with HotelRunner's channel management tools to give smaller hotels a cost-effective way to manage their inventory while distributing through third parties such as Booking and TripAdvisor.
Wednesday 14 October 2015:Jetaport opts for DHISCO
- DHISCO will power the Jetaport group booking website, giving its customers a range of hotel options. Property inventory will come from 100,000 hotels and more than 300 hotel chains in 200 countries, as part of the agreement.
RezNext secures
RepuFact agreement
- The hotel technology and property management provider will have access to analytics tools from RepuFact so hotels can monitor guest feedback based on source, sentiment, geography and demographic.The RepuFact dashboard will be integrated into the existing RezNext Distribution Intelligence Application platform.
Tuesday 13 October 2015CyberSource secures Traveloka
- Indonesia-based OTA Traveloka has signed a deal with secure payments and fraud prevention specialist CyberSource. Traveloka, which has pivoted from a flights meta into an OTA, is using various payment products for web and mobile transactions, including its one-click booking feature, TravelokaQuick.
Trust trusts
Derbysoft- Trust International has launched Trust Campaign, a meta-channel management tool for hoteliers, in partnership with Chinese software business Derbysoft. Trust Campaign will be integrated into Trust's yourVoyager CRS product and will help subscribers manage their campaigns and budgets across various hotel metas including Google HPA, Tripadvisor, Kayak, Skyscanner and Wego.
Friday 9 October 2015:Rocketrip expands partner network to the sharers
- Uber joins a list of so-called Travel 3.0 companies that offer Rocketrip customers the chance to obtain preferred rates, enrolment perks, and other services when they use the ground transportation service. HotelTonight, Breather, LoungeBuddy and FoundersCard are also included in the list of companies participating.
TrustYou to power Voice of the Guest platform at
Accor- VOG is a way of centralising customer feedback across the social web for the chain's portfolio of properties. The system allows manager to analyse comments, reply using different social media channels, interact with guests via surveys, benchmark performance against competitors and distribute feedback internally around the business.
Wednesday 7 October 2015:Travelport launches Hotelzon app
- Travelport Hotelzon, the B2B travel tech brand, has released a mobile app for managing corporate hotel bookings. Corporate customers now can search more than 250,000 hotel choices and access their company preferences and negotiated rates.
Tuesday 6 October 2015:Oman Air to boost booking experience
- Oman Air plans to enhance the shopping experience for passenger following a deal with Sabre to use additional elements of the SabreSonic technology. The airline has been a SabreSonic customer for more than a decade and will now use Interline Branded Fares and Dynamic Rewards to improve the experience and increase revenue.
Specialised Travel selects
Dolphin Dynamics- Music and arts specialist operator Specialised Travel is extending Dolphin technology across its tour operating and travel management business. The system will support retail as well as back-office and product management operations and enables the company to cater for individual bespoke trips and packaged tours.
Thursday 1 October 2015:Virgin Australia gives flight management to Amadeus
- The airline will use the Amadeus ALTEA Departure Control Flight Management system for all its operations, including building an interface with its existing passenger service system. It is the first time an airline has used the Amadeus platform without being an ALTEA Suite PSS customer.
ETTSA and
Hit Rail sign cooperation agreement
- The European lobbying group and Hit Rail will work together to push joint initiatives in the area of full service models for the rail industry. Such initiatives include advancing userail booking tools, information sharing and collaboration with other rail vendors.
NB: Travel systems image via Shutterstock.