News Roundup: AirAsia’s social enterprise Destination: GOOD opens new hub in Kuala Lumpur; Kudos Travel Technology partners Amadeus to deliver innovations to the business travel space; Japan’s Narita set to welcome influx of visitors for the 2020 Summer Olympics;
Entrepreneurship : AirAsia Foundation’s Destination: GOOD finds a permanent home in REXKL to support social enterprises
(Image credit: AirAsia Foundation)
AirAsia Foundation, the philanthropic arm of AirAsia Group, has opened its first social enterprise hub, Destination: GOOD, at REXKL — the old Rex Theatre in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown now metamorphosed into a creative space for entrepreneurs and artistes.
Over the past two years AirAsia Foundation has operated the social enterprise as a pop-up store in various locations including at klia2, the budget air terminal in Sepang. This is the first time the shop has a permanent address. Like REXKL, Destination: GOOD seeks to promote culture and foster a sense of community, said the foundation.
More than a shop, the hub aims to be an exchange that fosters collaboration between ASEAN social entrepreneurs and community-based enterprises. It currently retails more than 400 responsibly and ethically produced goods sourced from over 30 social enterprises from the region.
“In the last seven years we have awarded 24 grants to innovative ASEAN social enterprises to help them grow. We realised that to expand our reach, we needed to create broad-based platforms to speak to new markets and audiences,” said AirAsia Foundation executive director Yap Mun Ching.
“Through Destination: GOOD we hope to do just that and make social enterprise goods and services accessible to anyone seeking sustainable travel and lifestyle solutions.”
AirAsia Foundation also signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Kraftangan Malaysia to bring Malaysian crafts to a new audience and with its first corporate partner, Minconsult Sdn Bhd, to jointly fund social enterprise outreach activities in Kuala Lumpur.
Partnership: Australian travel tech Kudos and Amadeus combine technology to boost business travel
(Image credit: manfeiyang-Getty Images)
Brisbane-based Kudos Travel Technology is working with Amadeus to design new solutions to improve the corporate travel experience for agents, corporations and travellers in the Asia Pacific region.
Kudos offers a single platform to enable business travel agencies to manage corporate travel programmes for their clients.
In collaboration with Amadeus, Kudos has released a new passport scanning feature within its platform. It enables passport documents to be uploaded, validated and synchronised to booking tools, global distribution systems, such as the Amadeus Travel Platform, and other third party systems in seconds.
According to Kudos, this new feature will not only address the issue of data accuracy in the corporate travel space but provide additional levels of efficiency for travel management companies and their clients.
The company has also started piloting its new natural language application ‘Zeus’. Using machine learning the application saves time for travel consultants by providing faster access to data for travellers, real-time alerts, traveller movement and in-flight checks.
“Natural language, in particular voice, is the next frontier in human-computer interaction and we’re leveraging that within our platform to simplify the customer experience,” said Phil Rasmussen, Kudos managing director. “Why should users click through a multitude of screens when they can get all the information they need through simple conversation.”
The partnership will also see Amadeus support Kudos in its market expansion. Apart from Australia the company also operates in New Zealand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Kudos has worked with Amadeus since 2009 including the integration of its platform with Amadeus e-Travel Management solution and other booking tools.
Rasmussen said future joint developments would include integration with Amadeus Offers, allowing travellers and travel arrangers to generate quotes for air and hotel content without travel consultant involvement. “Our customers can expect an increased scope of integrated solutions, functionality and usability.”
Travel Technology: Japan’s Narita Airport rolls out auto bag drop units in time for Toyko 2020
Narita International Airport in Japan is putting its best foot forward to ensure fast and smooth entry for all visitors arriving for the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo 2020/ July 24-August 9) and Paralympics Games (August 25-September 6) in Tokyo with the installation of 72 self-service Auto Bag Drop (ABD) units.
The installation of the self-service baggage solution is through a contract the airport inked with Australian company ICM Airport Technics, a specialist in air passenger automation and self-service bag drop solutions for airports and airlines.
The Series 7 ABD units are progressively rolled out across all four terminals of the airport. Incorporating a number of friendly features the multi-lingual units will improve check-in efficiency of check-in and bag drop times for passengers of multiple airlines.
ICM Group CEO Richard Dinkelmann said the company’s appointment by Narita to use its self-service solutions is “an ideal opportunity for ICM to showcase our technology in Japan.”
ICM Airport Technics was acquired by Amadeus in June for an undisclosed sum, and became part of Amadeus’ Airport IT division.
The Sydney-based firm also has operations in the UK, France, Singapore, Japan and the US. It has provided more than 1,100 ABD units to 39 airport terminals worldwide, which have collectively processed more than 80 million bags
• Featured image credit (Destination: GOOD hub at REXKL): AirAsia Foundation
