Under the partnership signed this week, the Singapore-based GDS will distribute ACE Travel products to all Abacus-connected travel agents across the Asia region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand as a first phase.

Accordinf to Abacus booking date, non-air income – that is, sales derived from hotel and car bookings as well as insurance –could account for over 50% of a travel agent’s income in Singapore and Hong Kong. It does vary between travel agencies across the region with a lower uptake in other Asia Pacific markets.

Brett Henry, vice president marketing, Abacus International, said that these markets were catching up.

“Abacus is experiencing rapid growth in its insurance category with an average of 14% year-on-year growth in bookings. Of the five markets, Vietnam is in the lead posting at least a 20% month-on-month increase. With the new ACE Travel Insurance content, we are forecasting a 20% increase in insurance bookings on top of the current bookings, across these five markets,” he said.

Travel agents can access the content via Abacus’ fully-integrated travel insurance booking solution, Abacus TravelSecure, which allows the processing of travel insurance transactions electronically within the same Passenger Name Record (PNR). These insurance products will be available to other Asia Pacific markets in the second phase of the roll out.

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