Travel tech news from Limo.Travel, Group Travel Odyssey, Traveldoo, Expedia Affiliate Network, AirAsia, SITA, Burpple, Frankfort Airport, Passkey, Accor Hotels, TrustYou, Southwest Airlines and mTrip makes to the scan for April 19.
Travel Portal
Orlando-based Group Travel Odyssey has launched a new group travel website. Users will be able to receive quotes from group-friendly Central Florida hotels, vacation home resorts, restaurants, group flights to/from Orlando and ground transportation.
Limo.Travel, Malaysia-based airport transfer company has announced its web booking platform for Malaysia and India commencing 1st of May 2013. The facility is made available for Kuala Lumpur International Airport and KL's Low Cost Carrier Terminal in Malaysia and in India it is extended up to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin airports in the first phase.
Traveldoo, the web and mobile platform provider for travel and expense management has partnered with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN). This partnership will enable Traveldoo access the extensive inventory of approximately 160,000 hotels through EAN.
Airlines, Airport
Trouble continues for the grounded (since December '12) Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines as the DGCA rejects yet another revival plan by Kingfisher saying there was 'nothing much' in the plan.
Answers-in-Law, a legal expenses indemnity company has introduced a joint program with AirAsia BIG which will enable Answers-in-Law subscribers to get BIG reward points when they sign up for or renew their subscription. BIG is low-cost carrier AirAsia’s global loyalty program whose members, known as BIG Shots. With this collaboration, anyone subscribing to any of the three Answers-in-Law plans will be entitled to a free BIG Prepaid Visa Card preloaded with BIG points.
SITA is the master systems integrator for a US$1 billion modernization and expansion project at Bogota El Dorado Airport (BOG). Work is currently underway to extend the terminal, which will also handle domestic flights starting in July 2014. Airlines can share new common-use check-in and transfer counters, passengers can use self-service check-in kiosks and the baggage management system is entirely automated. Together these new services improve the passenger journey and reduce time spent in queues.
Fraport AG has launched a Chinese version of its Frankfurt Airport Web site to meet the special information needs of the growing number of passengers from China. This latest service follows other recent new offerings such as the FRA WebApp in Chinese and Shopping Assistants, airport service staff who give assistance in Mandarin Chinese.
Hotel, Restaurant
Passkey announced that its 2012 hotel bookings grew by 40% over the prior year, exceeding 25 million room nights and $4.5 billion in net hotel revenue processed.
Accor Hotels says visitors to its main website increased from 80m to 100m between 2010 and 2012 and the service receives 200 visitors and 10 bookings every minute. Future plans include an Arabic and Turkish language versions of the site while the group is anticipating 'digital sales' will account for 45% of turnover in 2015 as well as two-thirds of direct sales.
Burpple, Singapore-based food discovery and restaurant listing startup has now launched its service over the web. The company launched its native app for iOS and Android platform this year. It's interesting to note that Yelp was launched in Singapore last September and India-based Zomato is planning to launch its service in Singapore. Intense competition expected.
People Movement
TrustYou, online reputation management (ORM) provider for travel industry has added PhoCusWright Founder Philip Wolf to its board.
Craig Maccubbin will join Southwest Airlines as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President of Technology Operations, effective May 6, 2013. Maccubbin most recently served as VP and CIO of Spirit Airlines, where he was responsible for all information technology and systems.
Others
An HRS survey finds 67% of European hotels offer free wifi with Turkey and Sweden leading the pack. However, guests looking for free web access in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal will only find it in every other hotel according to the report. For hotels that do charge for wifi, Britain comes fourth in the rankings with an average price per hour of £3.36.
Mobile travel guide mTrip has released iPhone and Android applications for its service. The apps enable users to plan and share trip itineraries as well as access features including Trip Genius which generates personalised itineraries based on interests. Here's a demo.