Travel tech trade news from Vayama, Air Uganda, Fareportal, Fastbooking, Geneo, GetThere, HRS, Quickbeds, Preferred Hotel Group, Malmaison, Siteminder, Starwood, TBEX, and WeHostels make it to our scan for April 9.
Vayama, a metasearch site that emphasises international flight ticket sales, is driving an 18-foot truck outfitted with marketing materials on a 12-stop journey across the Western US. The goal is to raise consumer awareness about the five-year old brand.
Starwood Hotels has come out on top of the third annual L2 Digital IQ Index: Hotels, which ranks the digital competence of 57 hotel brands around the world on more than 675 data points.
HRS, the hotel portal for corporations, has entered into a distribution agreement with GetThere,
Sabre Holdings' corporate platform. By end of the month, the 250,000 hotels affiliated to HRS will be bookable on GetThere’s global corporate customers no matter what global distribution system they use.
London's transport system may set in motion plans to replace paper tickets and electronic cards with NFC-based contactless credit cards and smartphones.
The U.S. airlines and hotels are warning about lost revenue due to federal budget cuts that started in March as government agencies pull back from travel and discretionary spending.
FastBooking, a Paris based e-commerce platform for hotels, has debuted new Passbook-enabled mobile apps for reservation portals via iPhone and Android.
Webjet, WeHostels and TBEX are giving away a complete travel blogger package to visit TBEX '13 in Toronto, Canada, this upcoming June. the package includes a $500 flight credit, a travel blogger pass to the conference, and a free bed at the Hosteling International Toronto.
Preferred Hotel Group, a provider of sales, marketing, and distribution services to independent luxury hotels, has launched new brand websites, which are showcased at PreferredHotelGroup.com for both desktop and mobile users. A highlight is its integration of reviews from third-party review sites, fed directly to individual hotel pages.
Porter Airlines, a fast-growing and profitable Toronto-based regional carrier, has joined ARC, linking up with ARC's 14,000 affiliated travel agencies and its ticket settlement system.
26 boutique hotels from the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin brands in the UK will be powered by SiteMinder, the channel management application.
Tourism Exchange Australia has launched its latest new distributor connection, to Quickbeds and the Flight Centre Group.
Fareportal launches Geneo, an iPhone app that asks a few questions about travel plans and then matches the perfect flight options for the traveler. Its flight search technology finds better-fitting flights with every new search.
Air Uganda gets a new CEO, Cornwell Muleya. Mr. Muleya has worked as a CEO and CFO for several airlines in Africa, including Air Mauritius, Air Botswana, Air Tanzania, and Zambezi Airlines.