Amadeus launches Destination Content
Amadeus, the world’s leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, has launched a new marketplace for Destination Content, allowing travel agents in Asia Pacific to book a wide variety of destination activities such as tours, airport transfers and ferry services.
Destination Content aims to address the myriad of adventures and experiences awaiting travellers, the tours and activities market is booming. Travel activities account for 9 percent of global travel revenue and this segment is growing faster than the total travel market.
However, no longer does a "one size fits all" approach work and travellers want to choose the options that best suit their interests, schedule and budget.
Amadeus Destination Content is a user-friendly marketplace that allows travel agents to book and purchase destination content via their preferred booking platform – Amadeus Selling Platform Connect.
In partnerships with City Discovery (a VELTRA® company), TurboJET, World Airport Transfer, and Jayride, Amadeus Destination Content offers in excess of 9,000 unique tours and activities, airport transfers for more than 1,000 airports worldwide, and ferry services for major destinations in Asia Pacific.
The new marketplace allows travel agents to offer their travellers a complete and personalized journey in addition to savings in terms of money, time and peace of mind.
“Amadeus Destination Content provides everything that we need,” said Aleth Jesame Del Mundo, Fortune Travel International, Inc. who has been using the solution since the pilot in 2016.
“The wide range of destination content available helps us to save time researching requests to book local events, restaurants and other activities. The booking and confirmation process is quick and easy, it’s practically effortless. It helps us to streamline the entire process so that we can easily plan trips for our travellers from beginning to end – with more local product offerings and higher commissions.”
Frédéric Barou, Vice President, Travel Channels, Products & Operations, Asia Pacific, added, “Online tours and attraction gross bookings will more than double from $9 billion in 2015 to $21 billion in 2020. We are excited to bring our new Destination Content marketplace to the region as it will bring huge benefits to both travel agents and travellers.”
Amadeus Destination Content will empower travel agents to deliver the right content to travellers at the right time, shaping one-of-a-kind travel experiences for travellers at every point of their journey.
Already launched in Philippines, Amadeus Destination Content is gradually being rolled-out in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
IndiGo, India’s biggest airline, said it received compensation from Pratt & Whitney as the manufacturer struggles to fix glitches in engines that power Airbus SE’s new A320neo jets.
The nature of the compensation from Pratt & Whitney is confidential, the airline’s Chief Financial Officer Rohit Philip said Monday after the airline reported first-quarter profits. The carrier is not happy with the engine issues and it may take one and a half years to sort out the issue, IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh said on a conference call Monday.
“We continue to have a higher number of engine removals, and sufficient spare engines have not been available,” he said. “The operational disruptions are quite challenging, and we are not happy with that situation.”
Pratt & Whitney declined to comment Monday, while referring back to comments last week by Akhil Johri, chief financial officer of parent company United Technologies Corp. Johri said the manufacturer is confident it’s getting a handle on the problems and still expects to hit a 2017 delivery target of 350 to 400 engines. He said Pratt & Whitney is incorporating revised carbon seals to address a durability issue and should have a fix by October for a separate glitch with the combustor liner.
The airline, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., was forced to ground as many as nine new A320neo jets on some days, Ghosh said. It may be a year or so before Pratt & Whitney implements design changes to the geared turbofan, he said.
The groundings, which emerged in recent months, are holding back IndiGo’s push to add capacity to maintain its domestic market share of more than 40 percent amid a travel boom triggered by an emerging middle-class flying for the first time. The airline, India’s biggest and the world’s top customer for the A320neo, has said in the past it will consider a rival engine manufactured by CFM International, an alliance of General Electric Co. and Safran SA, if glitches persist with the Pratt & Whitney engines. (Bloomberg)