Seminars on technology take to the road
November 18, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under Technology, Thailand
BANGKOK, 18 November 2010 – Tourism Technology Association is partnering with the International Institute for Trade and Development to host a series of free seminars “2012 Vision for Tourism Industry’s Technology,” held at four different venues around Thailand.
The seminars, all in Thai language, will kick off 16 December and end 24 March 2011, the Thai Hotels Association advised members last week.
OneClick launch touts security tool
BANGKOK 4 November 2010 – A new online application, OneClick, introduced by Amadeus Asia Pacific, claims to be able to keep companies in touch with their employees during national emergencies and travel disruptions.
Introduced Thursday at a media briefing held at its Bangkok regional headquarters, Amadeus said the application allowed corporate users to quickly locate travelling employees in the event of an emergency.
Amadeus OneClick was developed over nine months starting last December and research with potential users suggested it should support what is legally termed “duty of care.” Read more
WIT wins trade award
October 29, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
SINGAPORE, 29 October 2010 – Tough love turned into sweet love for Web In Travel Thursday evening when it won the Trade Conference of the Year in the Singapore Experience Awards 2010 held in Singapore.
It beat two other finalists, CommunicAsia and International Maritime Week, in the category.
WIT won for its 2009 conference, held last October, which had the theme of “Tough Love” to reflect the tough times the travel and tourism industry was undergoing after the global financial meltdown. It acted as a call to arms and became a rallying point for travel leaders to inspire and motivate each other to make it through the tough times and to bounce back, stronger.
SQ to offer WiFi on the fly
SINGAPORE, 5 October 2010 – Singapore Airlines said Tuesday it would be able to offer passengers inflight wireless internet access at 10,600 metres by next year.
SIA said it plans to roll out a scheme that will allow access to WiFi Internet and mobile telephony services from as early as the first half of 2011.
“The environment that our customers have gotten used to on the ground can soon be replicated in the air, when they fly with Singapore Airlines on aircraft fitted with this new connectivity platform,” said Yap Kim Wah, senior vice president for product and services.
Space travel for US$200,000 a ticket
KUALA LUMPUR, 28 September 2010 – Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson said Monday that Virgin Galactic is on track to offer commercial space travel within 18 months, and that space hotels are next on the drawing board.
The project’s SpaceshipTwo, an aircraft built by aviation engineer Burt Rutan and designed to carry paying customers into suborbital space, had its maiden flight in the California desert in March.
“We just finished building SpaceShipTwo. We are 18 months away from taking people into space,” Branson told a business conference in Kuala Lumpur, adding that the fare will start at US$200,000.
TAT extends digital footprint
September 15, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
BANGKOK, 14 September 2010 – Tourism Authority of Thailand has set itself a marketing target to tap social networking sales channels and grow user content on its websites, according to TAT governor, Suraphon Svetasreni, who launched the digital media initiative last week.
The TAT governor confirmed a target of 15.5 million visits in 2011, based on an estimate that tourism would recover by the end of this year with around 14 million visits.
To drive growth in 2011 through 2012, the agency is building its presence in digital media and social networking and even tempting fate with a forum that welcomes comments from traveller.
SQ cracks down on Facebook
SINGAPORE, 2 September, 2010 – Singapore Airlines has directed its flight attendants to avoid discussing work-related matters on Facebook and other social networking websites, company officials said Thursday.
The image-conscious airline, which is consistently ranked by passengers as one of the world’s best, took action after some cabin crew were found to have discussed confidential job issues on Facebook.
CBS offers XML interface
July 12, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under Tour Operators
BANGKOK, 12 July 2010 – CBS Travel Asia, a leading Destination Management Company based in Bangkok, announced last week that it has successfully installed an XML interface connection with the Sawasdee Hotel Group, a budget hotel group with 18 properties throughout Thailand.
The Bangkok based DMC has been pushing the XML interface option after it upgraded its trade wholesale website that links with wholesaling partners, worldwide.
SOTA partners with PayPal
April 22, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
SOTA has announced collaboration with PayPal, to ease cross-border payments for travel agents using the SOTA platform.
SOTA – Standard Online Tourism Architecture – is a one-stop e-tourism platform for technology, marketing and innovation. It is already being used by over 16,000 travel operators. The SOTA platform was developed by Malaysia-based Creative Advances Technology, a leading provider of online tourism solutions.
Amadeus considers IPO
March 26, 2010 by TTRweekly Staff
Filed under News
Amadeus announced on Wednesday it will embark on a public offering on the Spanish Stock Exchange, later in the year, if market conditions are favourable.
It follows an attempt byits competitor, Travelport, to launch an IPO earlier this year, that was aborted at the last minute.
Amadeus intends to execute a primary offering of shares valued at Euro 910 million plus a secondary offering, all of which when combined would amount to at least 25% of the company’s overall stock.
