Technology, Travel and Travelport

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business

Lots of advertising, rigorous marketing, planned launches, promotion of holiday packages and substantial media attention — Travel Industry is on its toes for the biggest regional travel event — The Arabian Travel Market (ATM). Who’s who of the travel and tourism industry of the region — is all set to gather in the commercial capital of UAE to showcase their products and services.
Ahead of the big day, Emirates
Business got hold of Rabih Saab, president and managing director, Europe, Middle East, Africa and South Asia, Travelport — who is among the most sought after personalities in this event due to his extensive knowledge about the industry and the newest technology trends. We get him talking in an exclusive interview about ATM, industry size, predictions and
beyond.

ATM is just round the corner. How prepared is Travelport for the event? What should we expect coming from you this time?
ATM is the perfect platform for Travelport to outline how technology supports the travel industry’s growth in the face of sector challenges. We are excited to showcase at ATM how Travelport is redefining the role technology plays across the travel industry landscape (be it travel agents, airlines or travelers on their mobiles) in driving the industry’s growth. We have an outstanding stand location with an equally stunning design that has been customised to showcase how our product offering and travel commerce platform is redefining the travel industry.
Travelport’s MTT, the leader in mobile and digital transformation for the travel industry, is fundamental to its ATM participation in 2016, with a seminar taking place on Monday the 25th of April that will reveal current mobile trends amongst travelers in the Middle East and future mobile trends beyond 2016. Smartphone and tablet penetration in the Middle East is estimated to reach 600 million devices by 2018 and 90 percent of the Middle East business travelers claim that apps improve their travel experience. MTT helps airlines and travel agents worldwide to deliver compelling digital travel experiences enhancing the end traveller’s journey. A second Travelport led seminar will introduce Travelport’s cutting-edge ‘Incubation Labs’ to the Middle East travel industry, which exist to get the best, most disruptive travel products into customers’ hands faster. The four month travel startup accelerator programme will encourage Middle East participants to apply to participate in the initiative and highlight the programme’s successes to date since its launch last year. Visitors will be able to find us on stand TT1520 at Sheikh Saeed Arena at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre and in the spirit of business networking, visitors can avail of the opportunity to have a professional photo head shot taken for their CVs or LinkedIn profiles at Travelport’s professional photo.

You have worked in many countries across your career. How well placed do you find UAE in terms of travel industry (both inbound and outbound)?
The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt are some of the most promising markets in the Middle East and the UAE is extremely well placed in terms of the travelindustry. The biggest challenge comes from geo-political instability and economic factors affecting not just the region but vital feeder markets. That said, by 2025, travel and tourism is expected to account for 420,000 jobs directly, an increase of 2.6 percent per annum over the next ten years in the UAE. Its exciting time to be part of the travel industry and Travelport is at the heart of this growing industry and with our Middle East headquarters in the UAE, we are perfectly placed to grow and support the growth of our travel industry business partners here.
Our industry is growing; Dubai’s Tourism Vison for 2020 plan is aiming to attract 20 million visitors per year by 2020 and worldwide, international tourism arrivals or overnight visitors hit a record of just over 1.1billion worldwide in 2011 with demand continuing to be strong despite ongoing geopolitical, economic, and health challenges in some parts of the world including our region in the Middle East. There were 46 million more tourists traveling the world or a 4.3 percent increase in 2014, and air travel is predicted to double in the next 20 years, with the average passenger taking 2.2 more journeys than they do today as we cruise through into the next 20 year period.

Events like ATM aim at an improved well-connected and well showcased travel industry on the whole. According to your previous experiences, how far does the event manages to succeed?
ATM is an international event, bringing together travel professionals from 86 countries and regions to Dubai for four days. Travelport has taken part at ATM for many years now and each year, we’ve seen the event evolve to the leading global event for the travel industry it is today. In our view, ATM is a unique opportunity for Travelport to showcase how our technology is redefining the travel industry, how the innovation of our product offering supports the growth our partners’ businesses as well as the effect our technologies have on the travel experience of the end traveller.

You make the travel process
easy – actually you work on the most important and decisive part of any travel. How much conscious efforts are out into making sure the process is fool-proof?
You’re right, our business sits at the heart of the travel industry; everywhere travel is searched, bought or sold, Travelport is there. Our technology is continuously evolving to meet and exceed the needs of our travel industry partners and our goal remains to continue to redefine travel commerce through our unique travelcommerce platform. The process of searching, buying and selling travel is advancing all the time; we now have over 150 airlines live with our Rich Content and Branding product which helps airlines differentiate the products and services they offer . For example, as airline offers get more complex and travellers want the ability to tailor their journeys according to their needs (i.e., travellers on a budget or who want to earn more miles, carry extra baggage or make last minute travelchanges etc.), Travelport technologies such as Rich Content and Branding helps airlines differentiate products and services they offer. From the travel agent sides our travel commerce platform enables them to maximise their revenues and profitability with the capability to seamlessly integrate this type of unrivalled content into their travel agency screens.

Technology is the heart and soul of every industry now-a-days. How do you think it has changed the travel and the travel commerce industry in past few years?
Travel has become much more complex in recent years. Today’s traveller is becoming increasingly demanding — they seek more choice, personalisation, flexibility and connectivity than ever before. This means that travel agents must be able to constantly demonstrate the added value they provide as well as excellent customer service.
The typical traveller of 2016 is super connected and the Middle East has the second most connected travelers worldwide4. Factors such as these mean it has become more and more challenging for travel brands, travel consultants and travel suppliers to ensure they have the necessary tools to show the consumer that they are still, and are perhaps now more so than ever before, relevant. Travelport is passionate about redefining travel commerce to in provide our agency customers with all the content they need, giving them the ability to manage complex deals and sales as well as a personalised service to the end traveller.

Can you please elaborate upon your operations here and
worldwide?
Since 2012, we have strategically invested approximately US$830 million in products with a focus on redefining our Travel Commerce Platform to address the trends, inefficiencies and unmet needs of all components of the travel value chain: Air and Beyond Air, which include distribution and merchandising solutions for hotel, car rental, rail, cruise-line and tour operators, B2B travel payments, advertising and an array of additional platform services.
We are a leading travel commerce platform providing distribution, technology, payment, mobile and other solutions for the US$8 trillion global travel and tourism industry. We facilitate travel commerce by connecting the world’s leading travel providers, such as airlines and hotel chains with online and offline travel agencies and other travel buyers in our proprietary business-to-business (‘B2B’) travel commerce platform (our Travel Commerce Platform). We processed over US$82 billion of travel spending in 2015.
As travel industry needs evolve, Travelport is utilising our Travel Commerce Platform to redefine the electronic distribution and merchandising of airline core and ancillary products, as well as extending our reach into the growing world of travel commerce beyond air, including to hotel, car rental, rail, cruise-line and tour operators.