Amadeus to launch new cruise booking tool
Amadeus will roll out an upgraded cruise booking tool for travel agents in the new year, Diane Bouzebiba, managing director UK and Ireland promised today.
"For Amadeus, cruise business has traditionally been a strong area but this year has been a little bit difficult for cruising," she said.
"We had made the most of this difficult period for the industry to look at new ways to sell cruises."
Bouzebiba said a new business-to-business selling engine with extended content and functionality would be rolled out to agents in the first quarter of 2013.
"We are currently working with ‘driver customers’ to identify ways forward," she said.
Since she joined Amadeus in January, Bouzebiba said the technology company has won and migrated onto its systems 71 new customers, the biggest being Virgin Holidays and The Low Cost Travel Group.
It has retained 99% of its customers in terms of volume, she said, but its biggest loss was Hays Travel. "We will get them back in three years," said Bouzebiba.
Another of Bouzebiba’s initiatives since she joined the company was the setting up of a local IT consultancy team of five members of staff who are able to advise agencies on ways to become more efficient. This might involve recommending to them Amadeus products, such as its automatic ticket change function, which cuts the time it takes to change an airline ticket by 90%. An automated ticket refund facility will be added next year.
"It doesn’t always mean selling them Amadeus products though," said Bouzebiba. "Sometimes it’s about looking at better integration or creating other efficiencies."
She said that although the travel sector was undoubtedly under pressure this year, she had seen an "extremely buoyant and innovative travel agency community in the UK".
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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