GDS Software, Global Distribution System and Social Media (Facebook & Twitter) helping Travel Agencies to Grow

Though travel demand in Europe stalled during the global recession, the pace of technological progress continued unabated. Those hotel and travel companies that seek success must either catch up or risk becoming irrelevant, according to a new report.

There was not one game-changing advancement or trend but rather a confluence of subsequent shifts that are changing the overall environment, he said during a news conference.

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Following are the top 10 technology trends that will help hotel and travel companies leverage innovation in the coming year and beyond.

1. New patterns of content challenge distribution

The old model of travel distribution, which saw large intermediaries—such as global distribution systems—aggregate content for booking, is being undermined by new models.

Personal clouds, for instance, allow users to access information anywhere, anytime and on any device. The “Internet of things” enables integration of connectivity and objects that can influence a trip, such as real-time baggage location, weather conditions and homeland security advisories.

Ubiquitous online communications allow even small hotel companies to connect with customers in real-time, allowing them to shop and book without delay. Those same companies, as well as the individuals they serve, also are better able to collect and integrate itinerary data from multiple sources without a GDS.

2. Too much choice means less is better

Giving people too many choices tends to lessen their satisfaction.

Online travel agencies used to provide as many options as possible to exhibit their computing clout. Today the focus is on providing relevant results that target the specific needs and wants of each traveler.

The new traveler, the millennial as we call him today, embraces technology and embraces all devices, and he wants to be shown the right information for what he needs.

Providing such targeted content is even more critical in the mobile arena, where smaller screens require both streamlined offerings and the presentation of those offerings.

3. Social technologies change the shape of travel

Facebook alone has more than 1 billion users, while social media in general reaches 85% of the world’s total Internet users. However, travel companies have yet to unlock the true potential.

4. New efficiencies re-energize the customer experience

As demand for customer service increases, new technological advances will lower the cost of providing it. But travel companies must consider whether a penny saved comes at the risk of a pound of customer preference.

Excessive menu trees or outsourced call centers in foreign countries may cut monetary costs but frustrate customers. Each travel company needs to determine how to use customer service technology in a way that increases customer satisfaction and reduces costs” the report states.

5. Cross-platform data access engages users

As customers realize their dreams of accessing desired digital information on any device or platform, hotel and travel companies are facing nightmares in providing the necessary development and support.

“Cross-platform data access requires travel companies to track the changing user-interface patterns of their customers to provide the appropriate level of service. This will be a continuing process as new technologies evolve and businesses become less restrictive about the devices their employees can use for particular tasks. The suppliers and distributors that support the most user-friendly, convenient interfaces will enjoy increased market share,” according to the report.

6. A cloudy future beats no future at all

Cloud services are becoming more and more sophisticated

Not only do they reduce IT costs and improve time to market, but they allow integration across multiple travel brokerage services, allowing customers to combine hotel stays with airfare or train tickets.  

The travel industry has been slow to adapt the services, however.

7. Intermediaries require fresh approaches throughout the travel cycle

Intermediaries, including travel agents and OTAs, must help consumers break through information overload to stay relevant.

“Instead of just selling the best airfare between Point A and Point B, intermediaries will have to provide the best (or lowest-cost) travel experience as a whole. This new imperative requires (sometimes drastic) changes—and investment—in technology, training, customer service time, and service delivery tools. If intermediaries can’t make the needed changes, they will cede shopping to suppliers,” according to the report.

8. Big data makes travel smarter

The effective use of big data can really increase your performance and can really be your competitive differentiator

Instead of focusing on transactions, companies must focus instead on data to better understand how, when, where and why travelers shop and book the way they do.

The report cites efforts by Choice Hotels International, which has set up a master record for every guest and loyalty program member to collect service history, bookings and such on-property selections as food and beverage.

It’s working in the case of Choice. The company’s enhanced loyalty program now delivers $1 out of every $3 in revenue, according to the report.

9. Better travel management through predictive analysis

The travel industry was an early adopter of business intelligence tools, which allowed it to make sense of and informed decisions about the growing amounts of data at its disposal. But as supplier and distribution channels have evolved, the use of business intelligence to manage those channels hasn’t kept up, according to the report.

“Travel companies need to determine their own ‘best practices’ for optimizing content acquisition and distribution,” the report concludes. “Doing so involves acquiring the appropriate tools and establishing business processes and management structures to monitor, analyze and respond to channel business intelligence.”

10. Short-range communications links improve processes

“Most people are acquainted with Bluetooth, but fewer know about radio-frequency identification and near-field communications. All three technologies provide limited-range communications capabilities,” the report states.

Hotel companies have only begun to tap into this potential, utilizing RFIC and NFC for room entry devices payment delivery. Further opportunities exist in the monitoring of visitor patterns, “as this data can lead to improvements in the visitor experience,” according to the report.

RF – HotelNews

PROVAB TECHNOSOFT (http://www.provab.com) is an award winning travel technology company, delivering best in class online travel software and CRS systems to global clients.  

Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/airlinereservationsystemsoftware.html

http://www.provab.com/airlinebookingsystem_flightbookingsystem.html

Travel eCommerce Website, Travel ERP Portals are driving growth to agencies in South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana - PROVAB.com

http://www.provab.com - With summer is on, people are planning for travel & vacations. Travel agencies are also pushing the operations to meet the demands. As the competition is high, its important to connect to right clients, either using a great travel agency software, supported by a good CRM team. Following are a few tips to increase the sales.

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As most of sales are through online travel agency software, use a travel software which connects to social media. Most of the clients read the reviews before they make the purchase.

Find the real interests of your potential customers and highlight them. Encourage them to send and update the reviews / comments on your travel website, which is anyways accessed by several potential clients.  

Going to places is always trending in the social media. Travellers when dissatisfied or angry at a restaurant, hotel, or a flight immediately inform the world through social media. Sometimes they appreciate good service. Interact with them, win their trust, and transform them to your loyal customers. Create a separate travel blog to accommodate the end user contents.

With pictures, videos, questions or statuses you can get followers and likes. Social media will tell you where to improve. Social media is big tool to boost sale. A buzzing travel portal will always convert more sales.  

Offers are an all-time favourite for customers. Declare discounts and freebies frequently. Sell hotel booking, flight booking and activities together. Travel packages attract even reluctant customers. Publish everything using the CMS of your travel portal software and share it to clients.  

Use SMS sending software to sell ‘last-minute’ flight tickets at great discounts, when there are unexpected cancellations in flights or when tickets are not sold out enough. Who will not desire to get highly discounted last-minute deals to their dream destinations on their mobiles. You can also use your mobile app for this. You can keep your customers updated on new destinations etc.

Your travel software must remind them about travel insurance, special baggage regulations or about the delay of their flight. Users will always appreciate taking care of these small things.

You can concentrate on a certain demographic area, a type of travel, a destination and make a travel niche. Your travel software will play a significant role in keeping in contact with these special people even when they are on the move.

Regarding Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/travel-software.html

Online Travel Software, Tour Operator Software or Travel eCommerce Solutions - PROVAB.com

travel ecommerce solutions, one of the most important points to consider is the features associated with it. The level of customization capability that the software possess also plays an important factor, while deciding on the software. One more major factor is the level of support that you would receive when you face technical difficulties, after the software has been launched.

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Choosing a travel agency software or a travel portal software could be a challenging task, unless you concentrate on the below mentioned key points.

Make a note of the features that you want

The software should align with your business requirement

Have a look at the demo of the software that you are planning to purchase

Search for a software that could be customized

After development support is very essential

The software should be scalable

Price should fit your budget

1. Make a note of the features that you want in the software

Making a list of the features that you are looking for in the software would help you in knowing your needs. Make a note of the key features and the special requirement that you expect from the software. One of the most common examples that I can site for you is the involvement of advanced mark-up module or the log of the user behavior analysis or an open source technology for your system. Your requirement may include easy access like one click quotation, voucher access from any point, automatic cancellation of booking and raising a system alert automatically. You may wish to have customized features like multiple payment gateway, multi-language framework, pricing model that is flexible and a more controlled back office features.

2. The software should align with your business requirement

The software that you purchase should have the capability of meeting your business requirement. This could be ascertained by conducting a market research and designing a business system that meets your requirements. The requirements vary as your business may be spread in one region or it may be spread across the world. The travel agency that you operate might be small with limited number of staffs or it may be a large organization with many employees. There may be a requirement to provide special access to certain employees and there may be requirement for different log ins. Your concept about your business operation should be very clear and accordingly the software should fit into your business requirement.

3. Have a look at the demo of the software that you are planning to purchase

An online presentation may showcase all the features, but it is advisable to ask for demo. Demo helps in understanding the system, along with handling it more efficiently. It is better not to have a system that you don't have knowledge about and are not able to use. It is essential to know about the system and how to effectively use it and getting a demo will provide you the opportunity of asking the question related to the operational features of the system.

4. Search for a software that could be customized

Customization is a feature that would allow you to add desired feature to the software when required. The travel software doesn't come with all the features. Customization would help you in adding and deleting the features at the required time.

5. After development support is very essential

The level of support that the software development company would offer is crucial to the smooth running of the system. When you are stuck, it is the support people who would help you to come out of the situation. You should opt for a software that has 24/7 support team, who would be at their tow to help with any kind of problem that arise with the software.

6. The software should be scalable

By being scalable the software would have enough room for expansion. When the software is scalable, it would have sufficient room for adjustment of your growing business and there would be no chance of the business getting halt due to the operation functions. This kind of software system would enable your business to grow without any kind of limitation associated with it. This is for your system facing less hassle during the course of expansion of your business and maintaining a steady growth.

7. Price should fit your budget  

It is not essential that costly software would provide the best solution and it is also not essential that free software would save cost. Though your budget is limited, investing in better software is recommended. Getting software should be considered as a long term investment. There is always a comparison between features, functionality and piece of mind and price. If you invest in an effective software system, it would be capable of saving money in the future and also lot of frustration.

8. Mobile compatibility

A key feature knowing the fact that 30% of the travel booking is coming from mobile devices.

Regarding Author:

Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel software development and marketing strategy implementation.

Bangalore, London and Madrid seeing surge in Online Travel Software, Travel CRM and Booking Reservation Software – PROVAB.com

http://www.provab.com - The total travel volume had grown several folds in the last decade and so thus travel agencies and travel management companies are. Most of the travel companies are graduating to OTA model and deploying the best in class travel portal development project to provide the ultimate user experience to their clients. OTA stands for Online Travel Agency and under this model – almost all the process are web based starting from the itinerary search to bookings.  

For B2C Travel Software Development – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Travel software development and travel mobile apps have become the huge opportunity. As smart phones are increasing their length and width across the globe, its imperative to have a next generation system, which can cater to online travel software model and fulfill the need for travel mobile app too. This is why a consolidation is needed for the travel software products with the mobile technologies, may be android app, html5 app or iphone app.

Like very business, travel domain also has something to share to its client on the go. It may be a new travel deal for client, a itinerary confirmation, change in the flight schedule, information about new packages. These can be seamlessly connected between the travel software and mobile app, could be shared to clients in real time. This not only builds the brand in a better way but this proactive approach improves the client relationship as well.

As per recent surveys, end users and travel agents, both will shift to online travel software, which gives the accessibility on desktop systems smart-phones. This not only saves their time but also improves the productivity. Travel agencies can develop mobile apps through travel technology companies and get it integrated into their existing travel system. This will not only help retaining the existing clients but also build a new customer base as well.

There are many good travel technology companies, delivering responsive travel websites using HTML5 and CSS3. This enables the travel software compatibility on cross platform and ensures that every user on every device can access the data seamlessly. It’s a right time, when travel agencies start consolidating their travel portal for cross platform compatibility and build the native apps to deliver the best to end users.

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com

http://www.provab.com/travelportaldevelopment.html

http://www.provab.com/travel-technology-company.html

GDS Airline Reservation System with APIs Integration for Agencies in Dubai, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Time is advancing and so is the travel technology. People need faster and better services for their needs, which are near at hand and easily accessible. When it comes to airline reservation, there are so many first time or less frequency users, there are many price sensitive users. In case of more frequent users the booking process should be quick and transparent giving more and more options and control to the user while selecting and booking an airline. To improve the efficiency of the primitive booking system, where there were reservation systems for a particular airline with travel agents subscribed to them, online airline reservation system is introduced, connected with the GDS systems (Global Distributed System) to provide better deals and strong inventories to global users.

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Airline Reservation System is an online booking system connected with global GDS systems including Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre, which consolidates the data from all the airlines. The booking engine connected with GDS system provides better inventory and rates to end customers as the number of airlines operating on the same routes will be many. Thus to beat the competition, airlines provide special fares and discounts to be one step ahead.

Airline Reservation Systems have gone through multiple stages of development since these were introduced. From a simple process of booking and flight schedules management, to a complete travel assistant for passengers, taking care of all of their needs from suggesting batter options, booking the travel tickets till the end of their journey.

For a particular airline operating in any specific geography, developing a robust and flexible ARS is fundamental for maintaining a competitive airline. It is a critical factor for deciding the sales and reputation of an airline. An ARS usually contains information regarding airline schedules, fare split ups, previous reservation records for that passenger and future deals and discounts if there.

A global distribution system based airline reservation system connects to several airlines and bring the data of availability and pricing at one common window. It also provides the information to various distributors and travel agencies working simultaneously round the world. Airline reservation systems are dealing B2C, B2B, corporate and white-label modules today.

Leading GDS systems are Amadeus GDS, Travelport GDS, Sabre GDS and Abacus GDS.

Regarding Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects.

Resources:

http://www.provab.com/airlinebookingsystem_flightbookingsystem.html

http://www.provab.com/airlinereservationsystemsoftware.html

http://www.provab.com/gdsintegration_gdsbookingsystems.html

How OTA web portals and software for travel agencies helping B2B, B2C travel agencies in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and UAE?

In the modern technological era, online travel portals play a key role especially in the tourism sector by benefiting both the business and the customer. It facilitates online booking, which is an easy approach for the travelers. A lot of innovation and technological advancement is happening on web portals intend to provide the travelers with online and on-mobile booking approach. In tourism industry, agencies noticed that most of the people in recent days are choosing web medium to make their tour arrangements, and the online bookings have been tremendously increasing year-by-year. So they have witnessed travel software solutions will be a productive business in the e-business industry.

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These agencies are striving to be the best counterparts in the market by providing travel reservation interface as per the consumer requirements and needs. Consumers are provided with various services like lodge booking, air ticket booking, car rentals, transport booking and many more by these online portals. Agencies arrange these components in different segments so that consumers can make their bookings so easily.   

Travel Reservation Software:

Online travel web portal is a web booking engine including payment gateway, vacation packages, flights, hotels - all together in a single system. It acts as booking system that helps travelers to make advance bookings for their next travel, vacations. The travel industry software is the best option for you as it can manage various segments like beginning search, response, selection summary, payment and booking confirmation. Also, it is customized to meet the everyday demands of travel companies as well as the end to end consumers.

However, reservation software systems have greater demand across the market due to the following reasons:

Enhancement Options: Reservation software system is featured with enhancement options that allow you to add during the reservation process so easily.

Peak Time Bookings: In general, there will be heavy traffic for bookings during the festive season or peak time, which causes disturbance for travelers while planning a trip sometimes, may not be able to make advance booking arrangements. This problem can overcome with the travel reservation software system.  

Data Management: There will be thousands of traveler bookings at a point of time that overloads the website, which arises multiple errors for consumers during the reservation booking process. As the travel reservation software systems are equipped with technological modules, overloaded data can be managed and can make the booking process trouble-free.  

Auto-Cancellation: Travel reservation software provides an option of online booking cancellation for travelers whenever they want to be. After the cancellation, money will be refunded directly to their accounts. Earlier, it is a difficult task as consumers have to approach offline travel agencies for reservation cancellation which is a time taking process.        

In consideration with all these features, the demand for travel software solutions have been increased among both offline and online travel companies. Here, the important task for travelers is to select the best company which offers reservation software system with all required modules.

Why travel reservation software for agency?

Complete automation is the clear answer for this. Travel companies, charter, event organizers, cruise, tour operators, inbound, outbound and more are using travel web portals. The online booking engine is featured with custom made, user friendly and efficient that helps you to dispatch online travel sales successfully. It is affordable and serviceable for any type of travel business whether it is a small, medium or large scale company though their purpose of usage can be different. Travel agencies can improve their business productivity and income which leads to expansion of business lines globally, with the influence of travel reservation software system.   

It integrates online bookings, comes with tools specific to the tourism sector and also has a capability of handling B2B and B2C bookings. In recent days, most of the travel agencies are heading towards travel web portal development and reservation system due to this, a traveler has a wide range of choice in the online market to approach for efficient planning a trip in advance.