GDSs to bet on the future at Airline Cloud9 as online travel soars
Airlines and GDSs have always had a love-hate relationship, much like parents and their children, we suppose. They created them (the GDSs) and now that their “children” have grown up to be richer (definitely) and spoilt (well, maybe), tension has crept into the relationship.In some cases, tensi [...]
New AsiaRooms index shows region leads in online hotel bookings
Asia leads in online usage for hotel bookings with cost savings ranking lower on priorities compared to other markets, according to the new AsiaRooms.com Traveller Confidence Index (TCI).The survey, commissioned by AsiaRooms.com and in partnership with research firm VisionOne UK, shows Asia had t [...]
The man who wants to put Humaneity in travel
The first time Mark Philpott’s life changed was when he was working for DHL in Belgium. He was watching a local TV programme about an athlete who had been badly injured and would no longer be able to compete again.He determined to find the athlete and after a few hours of searching, his colleague [...]
SiteMinder sees doubling in booking revenues
SiteMinder's distribution platform delivered its growing list of global hotel customers using the platform just over USD$2 billion dollars in booking revenue from online channels in the 12 months to June 30, 2012 – double the figure from the previous financial year.The revenue was generated by a [...]
Red Planet takes stake in Tune as low cost brand expands
Red Planet Hotels has invested a 16.05% stake in Tune Hotels, making it the third largest investor in the Malaysia-based hotel chain, which is spreading its wings in ASEAN and around the world.Bangkok-based Red Planet Hotels, a major franchisee of Tune Hotels in South-east Asia, said the deal rep [...]
Raja Kamar casts wider net with Blackberry app
PT Raja Kamar Indonesia, the country’s leading domestic online hotel booking business, launches its new, free Blackberry app this evening in Jakarta.The app will allow registered rajakamar.com members to search, book and pay for domestic hotels 24 hours a day using their BlackBerry handsets.Sc [...]
New solution to give hotels direct control over allotments and inventory
A Malaysian company has developed the Hotel Allotment System (HAS) which promises to give hotels direct control over their room inventory management.The system, operating from a single platform, allows hoteliers to streamline multiple sales channels including their OTAs and wholesalers by centralisi [...]
Bad news, mass stupefaction of content. Good news, more efficiencies
“Do you mind? I just have to respond to this,” said Richard Quest as I prepared to sit down and ask him my first question.So I waited. It’s not an unusual occurrence these days – for face-to-face meetings to be interrupted by phone calls and instant messages. It seems to be the thing to do [...]
Singapore’s Chan Brothers first in APAC to use Amadeus Mobile Traveller
Chan Brothers, one of Singapore’s leading travel agency, is the first company in Asia Pacific to choose Amadeus’ newly created Amadeus Mobile Traveller to address the needs of its customers, as well as to stay one step ahead of the curve.The agency’s group managing director and CEO, Anthony [...]
Top travel websites in June – Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore
Data from Experian Hitwise shows the same players in the three countries dominated the online scene last month as in May, with Wotif.com, Jipiao.trip.taobao.com and Expedia Singapore topping the list.See slideshow below for the full details.Australia • The Australia online travel scen [...]
