THE Wrap is a round-up of news in the travel and technology sector – new partnerships, product launches, aviation industry updates, innovative solutions, and more …
Amadeus unveils cloud vision to transform travel
In February, Amadeus and Microsoft formed a global strategic partnership that will harness cloud technology to innovate and explore new products and solutions to support airlines, airports, hotels, rail providers and travel sellers.
The two companies have offered insights into these innovative projects in a newly published report, “Journey to Cloud Planet”. Among the highlighted projects they co-developed is the Traveler Centric Platform that allows travel providers to access and share customer insights, enabling them to create better traveller experiences and generate new revenues.
The comprehensive 56-page report looks at the benefits of cloud capabilities for the travel industry, and the technology transformation that sees more than 400 applications transitioning to Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing service operated by Microsoft for application management.
It also details a “first for the travel industry with the development of the Amadeus Data Mesh”, the next evolution of a data lake that joins up travel data in an open, shareable, and transparent manner to help fuel data science and train advance machine learning algorithms.
“This report clearly lays out our vision to transform travel technology with Microsoft, and I am confident it will inspire and create optimism in the industry as we continue down the path of recovery,” said Christophe Bousquet, Amadeus CTO.
“The move to Microsoft Azure is the greatest technology transformation in Amadeus’ 30-year history and it marks the dawn of a new era. Travel data will be openly accessible, within a defined governance framework. The pace of innovation will drastically increase. Our customers can build the cross-industry traveller experiences we know are essential to increasing the overall value of travel.”
Corey Sanders, corporate VP for Microsoft Cloud, added that the collaboration with Amadeus could create solutions that would add more value services support the needs of travellers. “Bringing data together and driving an AI solution on top of it will help not only Amadeus, but also its partners to leverage better data-driven outcomes.”
* Download the full report (PDF) here.
WTTC identifies digital solutions for governments to revive international travel
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has recommended digital solutions for governments worldwide to significantly restore international mobility.
In its inaugural report, ‘Digital Solutions for Reviving International Travel’, WTTC calls on governments to adopt a more internationally coordinated response to Covid-19 for the travel and tourism sector and implement digital solutions that will facilitate the resumption of safe travel.
Following World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, WTTC urges governments to accept four of the most widely used digital Covid vaccination certificates- EU Digital Covid Certificate, ICAO Visible Digital Seal, DIVOC and SMART Health Cards – as proof of Covid status while working towards a single global solution.
It states that by doing so, travellers, whether fully vaccinated or testing negative, would then have a globally recognised digital Covid certificate that would enable them to travel freely and safely.
Currently, the existing patchwork of policies and processes are not only complex and unsustainable, but also hinder the recovery of an already struggling sector.
To address this challenge WTTC suggests governments create their own digital travel portal, which allows travellers to electronically share their digital Covid vaccination or test certificates with their destination before travelling.
After booking their trip, travellers just need to upload their digital Covid certificate to the portal, and on verification would receive a digital travel authorisations certificate that could be presented as a QR code on their phone or digital wallet.
On check-in, the travel provider could scan the QR code or automatically check the passport details with the destination government to certify Covid checks have been approved, issue the boarding pass without the need to show documents. This process helps avoid confusing processes and long queues, explained WTTC.
Julia Simpson, WTTC president and CEO, said the organisation has been calling on governments to implement a globally coordinated response since the start of the pandemic.
“It is governments’ responsibility to ensure there is a safe, secure, simple and digital system in place to restore international mobility. WTTC is recommending a single global portal that recognises the main digital passes currently in use worldwide and acts as a one stop shop for travellers and governments,” she added.
“We can use the pandemic to leapfrog technologies and allow contactless travel with embedded data on vaccination and testing status”.
According to WTTC’s research, in 2020, when the pandemic brought international travel to an almost standstill more than 62 million jobs were lost, and the sector’s contribution to the global GDP fell by US$ 4.5 trillion.
* Read the full WTTC report here.
Sabre and GBT team up to accelerate the growth of corporate travel
Sabre Corporation and American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) have inked a multi-faceted partnership to develop technologies that will accelerate the growth of corporate travel.
Under the terms of partnership, which takes effect in January 2022, GBT will make a multi-million dollar long-term annual investment in joint technology development with Sabre over the next 10 years.
The two companies will also work to accelerate product innovation and develop a distribution eco-system that meets the future needs of customers and suppliers, said Sabre in the statement announcing the partnership.
This will include collaborating on corporate travel booking capabilities, accelerating merchandising and retailing solutions, and enabling efficient and superior customer service.
Sean Menke, president and chief executive officer at Sabre, said that despite the challenges posed by the pandemic to the travel industry he believes in a “robust recovery over time, particularly in corporate travel.”
He added: “However, the expectations of corporate travellers and corporations have fundamentally changed; the demand for new, differentiated products that are designed for specific travellers’ needs is likely to be more pronounced. Our strategic partnership with GBT is rooted in the common beliefs we share regarding the technology needs which will enable participants throughout the travel ecosystem to meet these new demands
Paul Abbott, CEO of GBT, stated the company would be able to deliver business travel experiences corporate travellers want through the combination of “Sabre’s retailing and content aggregation capabilities and GBT’s corporate customer software.”
• Featured image credit: Amadeus
