Mobile phones rule the roost

SINGAPORE, 12 October 2011 – Asia’s travel market is growing steadily despite facing tougher market conditions and a global economic slowdown, says Abacus International in its latest report on trends issued yesterday.

Technology continues to be the key driver in boosting both travel agents’ business capabilities and user end-travel experience – a trend that looks set to grow well into 2012.

Wireless convergence and mobile innovation have played a pivotal role in this growth, as both travellers and travel managers are increasingly utilising this rising channel as a means to deliver and experience end-to-end solutions. This year, the number of mobile workers worldwide will exceed 1 billion and more than 50% of Fortune 500 companies will interact with their customers via mobile devices. Read more

Abacus launches TripPlan

SINGAPORE,  28 September 2011 – Abacus International announced, Tuesday, the launch of Abacus TripPlan, an integrated travel approval and management solution for the Asian enterprises.

Abacus TripPlan is designed for business travel within Asia Pacific and offers several features including a pre-travel approval process – a common practice among Asian corporations often implemented through a manual process or separate system.

The programme will streamline trip planning alerting supervisors automatically of new trip requests that they can then approve with a single-touch anytime, anywhere, through any device. Read more

THAI partners with Abacus

BANGKOK, 27 September 2011 – Thai Airways announced Monday it has signed a partnership contract with Abacus that will offer travel agents a real-time link to the airline’s fare inventory.

Through Abacus Direct Connect the GDS connects its travel agency subscribers, worldwide, to THAI’s central reservation system without going through other systems.

Also, THAI will gain access to use the point-of-sale quota allocation and control the type of queries received from Abacus system, which gives THAI flexibility over flight inventory. Read more

Abacus beefs up channel management

SINGAPORE, 12 January 2011 – Abacus International announced Tuesday the appointment of Danny Kondic as vice president, channel management.

Mr Kondic is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in the travel industry, having started his career with Qantas in Sydney, Australia.

He has also held senior roles in the airline business including Malaysia Airlines in Kuala Lumpur as well as travel agency, wholesale and content with Kuoni Travel and most recently with Gullivers Travel Associates, both based in Hong Kong.

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Abacus upgrades its PowerSuite tool

Singapore, 30 November 2010 – Abacus International has launched an upgrade of its Abacus PowerSuite that offers a “front-to-back” financial solution featuring a business dashboard with on-demand reporting.

The new business dashboard within Abacus PowerSuite provides users with real-time monitoring of key business performance indicators (KPI) to allow rapid response to trends and opportunities, the company’s announcement stated.

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Abacus bullish on agency prospects

HO CHI MINH CITY, 15 October 2010 – Abacus Asia Travel latest Sentiment Survey shows 62% of Asian travel agents anticipate a promising industry outlook for the next half year reflecting optimism and confidence in recovery of economic downturn.

The findings were released at the 7th Abacus International Conference 2010 held in Ho Chi Minh, 13 to 15 October.

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India’s largest agency bags Abacus award

HO CHI MINH CITY, 15 October 2010 – Akbar Travels, the largest travel agency in India with 54 IATA and 14 non-IATA branches, was the recipient Thursday of the Abacus President’s Award at the Abacus International Conference 2010.

The conference of Abacus suppliers and partners was held over the last two days in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s major commercial city and a popular tourist destination.

The President’s Award goes to a company that demonstrates positive business qualities that include an investment in its people, openness to new ideas, adoption of new technology and attention to customer service.

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Abacus chief bullish on 2010 trends

2010 is off to a good start for Asia’s travel industry,  thanks mainly to a strong performance in the last quarter of 2009.

The predictions were made by Abacus, CEO and president, Robert Bailey, at a media presentation in Singapore earlier this week.

Abacus International, Asia’s leading global distribution system for travel agencies, revealed in its 2010 market study that new business practices had surfaced during the economic downturn that will underpin growth and set the underlying trends for the year ahead.

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New search in WebStart

Abacus International launched a new version of Abacus WebStart – a white label internet booking engine (IBE) tailored for the Asian region.

The latest version adds a new fare search and payment capabilities.

“Abacus is focused on delivering solutions designed to meet the complex needs of Asian markets. Abacus WebStart is already the most broadly deployed IBE in the region. It is a low cost, highly effective solution that helps our customers to capture new revenue opportunities in online channels.” said Abacus International, vice president, Marketing, Brett Henry.

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