This week we see the restructuring of two travel companies in Asia to better market to the growing travel demand in the region, and feature new products from Travelport and TripAdvisor.
CORPORATE TRAVEL: CORPORATE TRAVELLER MERGES WITH FCM TRAVEL SOLUTIONS IN ASIA
The unifying of the two brands under FCM is to meet growing regional travel demand. (Image credit: encrier/iStock).
The Flight Centre Travel Group is bringing Corporate Traveller under the FCM Travel Solutions (FCM) brand in Asia to support growing regional travel demand.
FCTG said the unifying of its FCM and Corporate Traveller brands in Greater China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore under the FCM umbrella is to “deliver a seamless and consistent travel solution to corporate customers throughout the region.”
The two brands have traditionally operated alongside each other. The larger FCM, FCTG’s flagship global corporate travel business, targets national, regional and multi-national accounts. The smaller Corporate Traveller brand, the first corporate brand under FCTG established in 1993, focuses solely on the SME segment.
“This merger will simplify our structure in Asia and strengthen our brand presence in the corporate travel sector,” said FCM Asia general manager, Bertrand Saillet.
The combining of the operations under the FCM brand was also to support growing regional travel demand, he added.
“With a renewed focus on a regional approach for the growing travel programmes of our national clients, this merger means that we are more ready than ever to quickly scale up any travel programmes for our customers as their business expands.
Saillet said customers moving into the FCM brand would continue to enjoy the same benefits they did under Corporate Traveller, as well as gain access to the FCM technology.
They can also enjoy better integration of product rollout and travel technology, account management and data consolidation as their travel programme regionalises.
The FCM Asia businesses will continue to operate alongside the Flight Centre brand offering, which also caters for small corporate accounts
PEOPLE: SABRE RESTRUCTURES ASIA PACIFIC BUSINESS WITH APPOINTMENT OF NEW DIRECTORS
Sabre’s new directors – Axel Bench (left) and Clayton Grant
Sabre has revamped its Asia Pacific operations by dividing Sabre Airline Solutions into three divisions with the recent appointment of Axel Bench as regional director – Asia.
Bench, in his new role, is responsible for South Asia, North Asia and Southeast Asia.
The other two regions are the Pacific region and Japan led by Scott Barratt, and mainland China with Peter Wu in charge.
Bench rejoins Sabre after having spent two years with Sabre Airlines Solutions (2005-2007) as account director for the Pacific region, in addition to having sales responsibilities in Asia for some of Sabre Airline Solutions products.
He has more than 25 years of experience in senior sales and account management roles in Harris Aviation Solutions Group, Thales, ERA and Lufthansa Systems with a specific focus on Asia Pacific.
Meanwhile, Sabre has also named Clayton Grant as senior account director for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. He has been with Sabre for four-and-a-half years. He was also with Virgin Australia for 12 years, working in reservations and commercial and revenue management positions.
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: TRAVELPORT FUSION EXPANDS AIRLINES’ REACH TO MOBILE-SAVVY CUSTOMERS
Travelport Fusion enables airlines to meet travellers’ mobile needs. (Image credit: chat9780/iStock)
Travelport has launched Travelport Fusion, a new mobile product that enables airlines to meet increasing demand of services by mobile-first customers.
Described as “a robust and rich mobile app solution for airlines of all sizes that can work across all host systems”, Fusion gives airlines end-to-end trip engagement via mobile with their customers.
According to Travelport, Fusion can be deployed in weeks and can be configured to reflect the airline brand.
The new app solution includes flight search, booking, check-in, boarding, passport scanning, day of travel assistance, itinerary management and real-time flight alerts via mobile.
Fergal Kelly, CCO of Travelport Digital, said Fusion is ideal for a wider market of airlines that wish to move quickly on mobile to serve travellers who are increasingly more connected.
“The important fusion of user-focused design, travel industry experience and mobile technology expertise is often misunderstood. Airlines that underestimate these three key elements in mobile travel risk missing out on significant revenue from channel shift, new customer acquisition opportunities as well as the resulting improved customer loyalty,” she added.
HOTELS: TRIPADVISOR’S STORYBOARD ENHANCES VISUAL PRESENTATION OF ACCOMMODATION
Storyboard – new photo tool from TripAdvisor
Hotels may be able to use photos more effectively to market their services with TripAdvisor’s recently launched Storyboard.
According to the travel site, this new photo tool “makes it easy for managers to blend together their best photos and top reviews into a promotional preview of their accommodation”.
Storyboard takes the place of a static photo on the property’s listing page. It is created from the best photos, review snippets and tags from an accommodation’s page and is designed to capture more potential guests.
Available exclusively to Business Advantage Preferred Access subscribers, Storyboard’s other features include:
- A better organised and easier to navigate redesigned photo viewer.
- Favourite photos are now prioritised in the newly redesigned carousel on the property’s listing page.
- Cover photos allow subscribers to hand select the main images for addition photo categories that appear alongside the carousel.
• Featured image credit: Rawpixel/iStock
