Wego gets Ace project
January 6, 2010 by Don Ross
Filed under News, Technology
A new website promoting the 10-member countries of Asean will be launched 25 January during the Asean Tourism Forum in Brunei.
SoutheastAsia.org is the product of Bangkok-based Asean Competitiveness Enhancement (ACE) Project, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Regional Development Mission Asia.
How to beat bloggers at their own game
November 17, 2009 by Duangrudee Somboonruangsri
Filed under Technology
Travel industry executives can use Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and YouTube to build business and communicate with customers.
That was the underlying theme of a seminar hosted, last week, by Pata-Thailand Chapter and Tourism Technology Association (TTA) for 80 travel business partners, mostly executives and marketing and e-commerce directors from tour companies and hotels.
Speakers included Syndacast founder, Wolfgang Jaegel, Admax Network Thailand managing director, Tiwa York, and Media Plus managing director, Nathida Ratthanawut.
Amadeus forecasts 2010 rebound
November 13, 2009 by Duangrudee Somboonruangsri
Filed under News, Technology
Amadeus Asia Pacific forecasts travel in the Asia Pacific region will recover next year and reach the performance achieved in 2007.
The global distribution system claims there are signs of resilience in the market, evident in the GDS’s data year-to-date.
TG joins Star Alliance IT upgrade
October 30, 2009 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News, Technology
Thai Airways International and Amadeus signed a Memorandum of Understanding that allows the airline to assess the first phase in the roll out of the Amadeus Altéa Customer Management System (CMS), the official Common IT Platform (CITP) that is being adopted by Star Alliance.
THAI’s executive vice president, commercial department, Pruet Boobphakam, said that THAI’s decision to sign the MOU was based on it being a founding Star Alliance member.
“We have a commitment to the group, which selected Altéa as its CITP. Furthermore, the assessment of Altéa is an obvious choice given THAI’s long-time partnership with Amadeus.”
Booking systems drop wholesalers
October 1, 2009 by Don Ross
Filed under News, Technology
Asiarooms.com embarked on a policy of contracting room rates directly with hotels in late August, by-passing tour wholesalers who were supplying the booking site with rooms from their annual allotments.
Now a month down stream, travel agents feel they are in no man’s land, as Asiarooms.com begins the task of clearing and closing accounts with Asian tour companies that have been its partners for a decade or more.
One North Asian tour operator commented that his business with Asiarooms had dried up entirely first week of September.
Travel agents continue to shun website tools
August 13, 2009 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News, Technology
There is still space for local agencies to tap online business, but travel website owners should not overlook the need to market their sites to build online sales.
That was the conclusion of a Thai-Amadeus Southeast Asia seminar, held last Friday, with IT partners and travel agents.
The seminar themed “Winning in the Online Travel Agency Business,” attracted 100 travel agencies, keen to develop their business online in the face of competition from online dot.com companies.
Asia’s GDS release new products
July 10, 2009 by Imtiaz Muqbil
Filed under Technology
Against a backdrop of instability, two of Asia’s leading GDS release new products aimed at travel agents. Travel Impact Newswire’s executive editor. Imtiaz Muqbil, reports.
New product announcements by two of the Asia Pacific region’s leading travel technology companies indicate how they are seeking new opportunities in times of instability in the travel and tourism industry.
Singapore-based Abacus is targeting small and medium sized travel agents while Madrid-based Amadeus, which has its Asia Pacific headquarters in Bangkok, is targeting corporate travellers. Read more