This is a roundup for product news and announcements for travel DISTRIBUTION in tourism and hospitality for November 2016.
Tuesday 29 November 2016:
Travelport signs up BTU
- The Austria and Germany focused travel agency will use Travelport for access to travel content, including airline, hotels and car rental products. The agreement also features use of the Smartpoint agency desktop platform.
Friday 25 November 2016:Djubo strikes Stayzilla deal
- The hotel sales platform service will connect with Stayzilla so that its roster of 1,400 hotels can expand their distribution into a consumer-facing service. Stayzilla currently has a network of 55,000 listings in India in 4,500 destinations.
Thursday 24 November 2016:OpenJaw Technologies gets NDC accreditation
- The Ireland-based aviation retailing platform provider has achieved the Level 3 NDC certification from IATA. This means OpenJaw's airline customers can combine flight and ancillary options across all their distribution platforms.
Tuesday 22 November 2016:Sabre optimises Kulula
- The South African low-cost carrier will use the recently launched AirVision Revenue Optimizer platform from Sabre to help manage retailing services. The tool allows airlines to react to booking behaviour in real-time and manage the sales of fares and ancillary sevices.
12Go gets
CheckMyBus distribution
- The bus travel metasearch provider will take content from 12Go to give it access to Asian operators and tickets. 12Go has more than 220 operators on its books, covering 3,000 bus stations in the region.
Friday 18 November 2016:DayUse finds time for DHISCO
- Global distribution switch DHISCO will connect with DayUse to give the day-time stays hotel brand additional exposure to intermediaries. DayUse operates in 18 countries worldwide and has more than 3,000 hotels on its books.
Wednesday 16 November 2016:CheckMyBus stops for Busbud
- Bus product content from Busbud will be included via an API connection into the CheckMyBus service. Busbud has recently worked with Skyscanner and Voyages-SNCF to increase its profile, whilst CheckMyBus now has over 400 operators on its books from 60 countries.
Tuesday 15 November 2016:Fly365 brands with Travelport
- The online travel agency is first in the Asia-Pacific region to implement Travelport's Rich Content and Branding platform, giving its users access to details and ancillary content from over 180 airlines around the world.
HitIt hits with
APG Airlines- HitIt will provide hosting, interlining and GDS connectivity to APG airlines, using its Crane Pax and Crane E-Ticketing platforms. The platform also includes a booking engine, ability to sell flexible ancillary services, check-in and frequent flyer programme.
Monday 14 November 2016:Booking.com launches content API
- The tool is for hotel channel managers, property management companies and content providers to send and maintain multiple listings on the accommodation booking site. The API will allow management of property photos and details, as well as policy information for guests.
Thursday 10 November 2016:BMI Regional brands fares with Sabre
- The UK-based airline will begin distributing its branded fares to travel agencies connected to the Sabre Red retailing platform. The airline has a network of 32 destinations in 11 European countries, as well as charter business.
Tuesday 8 November 2016:ETTSA clicks with five new agencies
- e-Travel, etraveli, Travelgenio, Travix and Tripsta have become members of the ETTSA lobbying organisation, based in Brussels. They join the likes of the three GDSs, Expedia, Ebookers, eDreams Odigeo and the Lastminute.com Group.
Travelport secures
Kiwi OTA
- The Czech Republic-based online travel agency, formerly known as Skypicker, will use Travelport to access flight fares and schedules. Kiwi has grown in its four-year history to have customers in 150 countries around the world.
Hotelbeds takes to the cloud
- Hotelbeds has unveiled a cloud version of its Apitude technology which was launched a year ago. The B2B technology specialist claims hundreds of companies are using the API and the cloud platform will enable faster response times. Apitude Cloud will be implemented in phases with Europe first. Hotelbeds has also developed additional functionality including the ability to modify bookings and more advanced filters.
Wednesday 2 November 2016:Bulgaria Air renews with Travelport
- The national carrier has extended its full content agreement to give Travelport-connected travel agencies access to its content, fares and schedules. The airline flies to around 30 destinations in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Russia.
Tourico touts growth
- The online wholesaler claims to have increased revenue in Europe and the Middle East by 300% over the course of the last five years. Other highlights from a set of results released this week include 50,000 car rental days in Europe in 2016 and 3,000 activities contracted in the region.
Travelport wins agency trio in Indonesia
- Dwidayatour, Panorama Tours and Smailing Tours and Travel Service have agreed to switch their GDS requirements to Travelport as part of multi-year agreements, including the use of the Smartpoint desktop platform. The deals were brokered by Travelport Indonesia, Travelport's third party reseller for the country.
Tuesday 1 November 2016:Skyscanner flies with GoCompare
- The UK-based financial services comparison engine will incorporate flight search tools via Skyscanner's white label platform. Visitors to GoCompare will have the same search and filtering tools that usually exist within the main Skyscanner product.
NB: Travel distribution image via Shutterstock.