This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel DISTRIBUTION in tourism and hospitality for February 2015.
Friday 27 February 2015
Hogg Robinson Group launches new company Fraedom.
- HRG has rebranded Spendvision, an expense management company it bought. It's called Fraedom, and it's a standalone company aimed at the corporate and unmanaged travel market with a SaaS solution.
Seekda launches a comprehensive platform
- The Austria-based company has internet booking engines for the hospitality industry for some 9,000 properties; roughly 900 have been using its metasearch connectivity tool. Seekda's new platform has greater functionality and adds retargeting, which presents the same offer via dynamic ads on other sites and custom landing pages to travelers who looked but didn’t book.
Epteca unveils travel merchandising platform for white label mobile apps
- The Swiss company that specialises in "contextual selling" has developed a “Smart Selling” ancillaries marketplace for travel companies. The white label mobile apps use predictive technology to make personalized upselling of "long-tail ancillaries" possible for tour operators, hotels, airlines, OTAs, and travel agencies.
Thursday 26 February 2015:Travelport taps TAP for Merchandising Platform
- The Portuguese carrier will use the Rich Content and Branding element of the Travelport Merchandising Platform, giving it the opportunity to display its content and online presence to agencies on their desktops. TAP will be the 91st airline to adopt the Rich Content and Branding technology.
Amadeus signals train deal with
Eurostar- The global agreement sees the European high speed operator push its fares and schedules to Amadeus-connected agencies via the Amadeus rail sales platform. Agents will be able to combine Eurostar services with existing products at the end of the routes the operator serves, including adding connections to SNCF and SNCB rail services.
Travelport drives to
Bidvest Car Rental deal
- The South Africa car hire provider runs the Budget Car Rental brand in South Africa and has recently rebranded to Bidvest. The new agreement will see rental content and services made available to Travelport-connected agencies via the Smartpoint desktop platform.
Monday 16 February 2015:Amadeus extends Southwest partnership
- Travel agency customers of Amadeus who use its corporate travel booking tool will no get access to the low cost carrier's full fares and inventory. The e-Travel Management and i:FAO tools will feature live availability (including last seat inventory), pricing rules, ticketing capability and loyalty scheme access.
Travelport secures new
TAG deal
- The new multi-year agreement see The Appointment Group take Travelport GDS content into its Majic product for selling independent travel and event management. TAG's agents will use the Smartpoint tool provided by Travelport.
Wednesday 11 February 2015:Travelport signs Virgin America
- The US carrier has chosen to participate in Travelport's Rich Content and Branding service, part of the wider Merchandising Platform. Rich Content and Branding allows Virgin America to control how its product is displayed to Travelport-connected agencies around the world. Travelport has this week also renewed its distributor agreement in Azerbaijan and Georgia through Galileo Caucasus.
Tuesday 10 February 2015:Jet2 signs with Amadeus
- The European short haul carrier will distribute its fares through the Amadeus GDS as part of the agreement. Jet2 primarily services airports and customers in the north of the UK, but agents across Europe will be able to secure tickets for travellers flying into Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Monday 9 February 2015:TripAdvisor gets Travel Tripper as latest distribution partner
- The hotel reservation IT provider becomes a Premium Partner for the TripConnect platform, giving its independent hotels the chance to participate in the user giant's Instant Booking facility.
Travelport re-jigs Nordics management team
- Current UK and Ireland managing director, Simon Ferguson, will take on the additional role of overseeing the company's Nordics division. Current regional manager Mathias Andersson will move to become chief operating officer of the recently Travelport acquired Hotelzon. The Nordics division, which covers Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, will have Anita Wagner Feddersen, Peter Cramon and Jette Kongensgaard on the leadership team.
Tuesday 3 February 2015Travelport goes the distance with Abercrombie & Kent
- Luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent is accessing hotels and flights from Travelport following a new long-term contract between the companies. The global distribution giant will also provide Abercrombie & Kent with its Smartpoint point of sale technology. The GDS has also renewed its contract with travel management specialist Schipol Travel International.
Copa Airlines opts for
Sabre reservation system
- Latin American carrier Copa Airlines has chosen Sabre as its technology partner. The global distribution system will provide its SabreSonic reservation system to the carrier as well as other customer relationship systems.
NB: Send links or releases for travel distribution direct to Tnooz
via email.
NB2: Travel image via Shutterstock.