Sabre becomes leading GDS in Greece

Greek travel specialist Marine Tours has contracted to use the Sabre® global distribution system (GDS) for travel bookings. The agency specialises in the shipping sector and is one of the largest air travel consolidators in Greece, accounting for over 35 percent of all travel sales there. Its conversion will make Sabre the leading GDS in Greece, with a market share of more than 40 percent.

The agency’s offices in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklion, Crete, have been migrated successfully from Worldspan and Galileo. The conversion involved full training on Sabre over a two-week period for more than 50 travel consultants.

Aghis Athanassiadis, Sabre’s general manager in Greece, said Sabre’s suite of marketing tools and online booking platforms had added real value to its bid for the Marine Tours business.

--We were able to provide customised solutions for Marine Tours’ specific requirements. Importantly, we were able to show how these products could contribute to Marine Tours’ strategic direction, and how we would be able to meet their needs several years from now”, Athanassiadis said.

Marine Tours’ move to Sabre follows five other recent and significant European agency account wins by the GDS. The conversion of French agencies Club Voyages, Jancarthier and Boomerang from Amadeus has increased Sabre’s French market share by nearly two percent. In the United Kingdom, Top Flight Travel’s move from Galileo gives the company a foot in the door of the Uniglobe consortium. And in Italy Sabre has secured the business of a large Italian corporate travel management organisation.

About Sabre

Sabre is the leading provider of technology, distribution and marketing services for the travel industry. Headquartered in Southlake, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the company has approximately 5,500 employees in 45 countries. Sabre reported 2001 revenues of $2.1 billion. Sabre maintains an ownership interest of approximately 70 percent in Travelocity.com (NASDAQ: TVLY), the most popular travel site on the web; and it owns GetThere, the world’s leading provider of Web-based travel reservation systems for corporations and travel suppliers. Sabre is an S&P 500 company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sabre is the leading provider of technology, distribution and marketing services for the travel industry was named the leading GDS in Greece. Sabre has an ownership of 70% in Travelocity.com which is the most popular travel site on the web. They also own GetThere which is the world’s leading provider of Web-based travel reservation systems for travel suppliers. Marine Tours (Greek travel specialist) now has a contract to use Sabre systems for their travel bookings, the travel agent specialise in shipping and they account for just over 35% of all travel sales in Greece. This conversion makes Sabre the leading GDS in Greece having a market share of more than 40%. This is smart move by Marine Tours as Sabre are strong leader in GDS, their marketing tools and online booking platforms are certain to add value to Marine Tours business.

Amadeus Awarded Top Sector Ranking as European R&D Leader in Travel and Tourism

Amadeus has again maintained its top sector ranking as one of the leading companies in Europe for investment in Research & Development (R&D) according to the European Commission (EC). The 2012 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, an annual report published by the EC, examines the largest 1,000 European companies investing in R&D during 2011 and ranks them according to the total amount invested.

Amadeus invested €347.5 million during 2011, an increase of 6.7% on 2010, to research and develop technologies for use in the travel sector. This investment represented 12.7% of revenues and helped the company maintain it number one position in Europe by total R&D investment in the area of travel and tourism.

Hervé Couturier, Executive Vice President, R&D at Amadeus says: "Naturally we are very pleased to see that our investment in R&D has been highlighted again by this important European Commission study. Equally we are very proud to be ranked again as a leader in the travel and tourism area. This further emphasises our reputation for innovation, with many years of experience in pioneering travel industry products and initiatives such as Altéa and, more recently, Amadeus Featured Results. Nonetheless, our desire for innovation has not yet been satisfied and R&D will continue to inspire our evolution as a large-scale technology pioneer."

This news follows the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's long-term financing institution, in May granting a €200 million loan to Amadeus to finance the research & development of a variety of projects in the area of IT for airlines, airports, hotels, and rail between 2012 and 2014.

Innovation is one of the drivers behind Amadeus' progress and growth, which has allowed the company's technology to achieve an outstandingly competitive position within the market. Total investment between the years 2004 and 2011 was more than €2 billion.

Amadeus has sixteen R&D centres around the world (Nice, London, Sydney, Antwerp, Aachen, Frankfurt, Boston, Miami, Toronto, Strasbourg, Tucso, Bangalore, Bogota, Warsaw, Istanbul and Bangkok), which currently house a team of over 4,500 people.

In recent years Amadeus' R&D efforts have been particularly focused on:

·         

   Extremely high performance transaction processing under stringent system availability and dependability requirements;

·    

             Information mining from very large data-bases;

      Super-responsive travel search engines;  

      Multi-channel customer servicing applications (agent desktop, web, kiosk, mobile, tablets);

·         

      Pioneering the use of open systems.

Examples of the impact this has had on innovation in Amadeus products and services in recent years include:

- At the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit in Arizona in November this year, Amadeus previewed its patent-pending Amadeus Featured Results solution, which is a search solution which revolutionises the way that flight options are presented. Vayama, a leading online travel agency uniquely focused on international travel, is the first pilot customer to implement the solution in beta form on its website, including 100 origin and destination combinations. Full global market availability for Featured Results is scheduled for early 2013.

- In September this year Amadeus published 'Open for business', which was authored by leading technology expert Professor Jim Norton. The report makes the case for the travel industry to embrace open source software in order to benefit from greater innovation, respond faster to industry change and reduce costs, whilst freeing the industry from its reliance on proprietary software to provide greater competitive advantage. Amadeus has pioneered the use of open systems within its business, at the operating system level Amadeus is successfully transitioning from proprietary systems to Linux to run its leading Altéa suite for airlines.

Leading innovations online, including Amadeus e-Retail, Amadeus Dynamic Website Manager and Amadeus Extreme Search have been built with extensive use of open source components in a way that would not be possible using legacy components. Amadeus ARIA(tm) Templates -- the framework upon which Amadeus IT Group's web solutions are based -- has recently been made open source, allowing third party developers to use it without charge.

- Continued development of the Amadeus Altéa Suite, a community-based airline IT platform that consists of three solutions covering reservation, inventory management and departure control. The Altéa portfolio has marked a technological and functional breakthrough in the airline industry -- with 122 airlines already contracted to use both Altéa Reservation and Inventory. Based upon these contracts, Amadeus estimates that by 2014 the number of Passengers Boarded (PB)[1] will be more than 760 million.

- Creation of Amadeus Total Rail, which enables railways to manage operations and sell seats across multiple sales channels, by allowing travel sellers access to book rail and air services side-by-side within the same solution. The offering includes Amadeus Global Rail Sales Platform, which is the first rail GDS on offer, and Amadeus Rail Operations Engine, which allows railway companies to manage schedules, inventory, fares and pricing. Amadeus Rail works with over 100 railway companies around the world and employs over 200 rail experts.

- Development of the Amadeus Hotel Platform, a solution for hotel chains which combines central reservation, property management and global distribution systems into one fully integrated platform. This recently-launched platform is designed to support hotels in the current age of globalisation and expansion, enabling them to respond to changing traveller demands.

- Development of ancillary services solutions as part of our commitment to helping airlines adapt and evolve their ancillary services strategy so that customers can move their focus from pure revenue to delivering profitability. Amadeus Airline Ancillary Services is an end-to-end solution which enables airlines to distribute (display, book, price and pay) services across all channels in full compliance with industry standards. 

Amadeus has developed a unique interactive catalogue which clearly displays the range of additional airline services available allowing travel agencies to view, book and up-sell ancillary services quickly and efficiently. At the end of September this year, 46 airlines had signed up for Amadeus Ancillary Services for the direct and/or indirect channel, 21 of which had signed up to sell ancillary services using the Amadeus solution in the indirect channel. Ancillary services are being sold through travel agencies in 16 countries for nine of these airlines, including airberlin, Air Caraïbes, Air France, Corsair, Finnair, Iberia, KLM, NIKI and Qantas.

Amadeus has maintained its top sector ranking as one of the leading companies in Europe for investment in research and development beating off strong competitors such as Navitaire and Worldspan. In 2011 Amadeus invested €347.5 million in research and development in technology for use in the travel industry which represented 12.7% of revenues helping the company to maintain its position at number 1. The European Investment Bank granted a loan of €200 million  to Amadeus to finance its research and development in IT for airlines, airports,hotels and rail. Amadeus currently have 16 Research and Development centres around the world including London, Frankfurt, Miami, Boston and more.

For the last few years Amadeus has played an important role in the travel and tourism industry as they have been focusing their research and development on, information mining, travel search engines, multi-channel servicing applications (Websites, mobile and tablet apps, Kiosk), use of open systems and transactions. With more and more big money being invested into their research and development, I have no doubt that Amadeus will stay at the top as leader of computer reservation systems for many years strengthening their position.

Agents hit by new GDS fees

UK agents have been hit by news that American Airlines is to start charging them for bookings through Galileo and Worldspan from next month.

The airline is imposing fees of up to £6.24 per sector on bookings through Travelport"s GDSs outside of its home market from December 20.

The decision comes amid a row between American and Travelport over distribution in the US.

Travelport is taking legal action against American Airlines after the airline decided to prevent Travelport"s sister company, Orbtiz, from selling its flights. Travelport confirmed it was taking a number of actions to defend travel agents and consumers commensurate with AA's anti-consumer and anti-competitive actions.

Anne Godfrey, chief executive of the Guild of Management Travel Companies, said American"s decision would penalize loyal agents and could be seen as an attack on the distribution model.

"It is imperative that this issue is resolved without causing further damage to those who have remained loyal to both airline and GDS over a number of years," she said.

"The GTMC calls upon both parties to resolve the situation before any long-term damage is done to relationships within the industry."

Over half of GTMC members use Galileo or Worldspan. The only way to avoid the fees is to book directly with the airline. A spokesman for American Airlines defended the decision and explained:  "Unfortunately, Travelport very recently notified American of dramatic booking fee increases for bookings made in markets outside the US using the GDSs owned and operated by Travelport - these being  Apollo/Galileo and Worldspan.

"These GDSs have become significantly more expensive to American than all other booking platforms in the affected international markets. To the extent that agencies particularly value the service of one of these GDSs, American has asked them to absorb their cost premium to American, known as the Booking Source Premium, to the degree necessary to bring the net cost of such GDSs reasonably in line with the cost to American of other GDSs."

Travel agents in the UK are being told by American Airlines that they will start charging them for bookings being made through WorldSpan and Galileo. AA is imposing fees up to £6.24 per sector on bookings through Travelport’s GDS outside of its home market causing an argument between AA and Travelport over distribution in the US. AA is preventing Travelport’s company Orbitz from selling its flight resulting in Travelport taking legal action. Travelport is taking actions to defend travel agents and customers. I think AA decision to start charging for these bookings are wrong as their loyal agents will not be happy about this causing an attack on the distribution model. I think this issue should be resolved quickly without causing more damage to the relationship between loyal airlines and GDS. 

Airline defends policy to charge passengers by weight

Samoa Air has defended its new policy to charge passengers according to their weight.

The national carrier of Samoa, which serves Samoa and the Cook Islands, has introduced a 'pay for what you weigh' system.

On the website, it says: "Booking a flight with us is as easy as inputting your approximate weight into our online booking engine (don't worry, we will weigh you again at the airport) - you then can prepay your 'guesstimate', guaranteeing you that much weight is allocated to you for that flight.

It adds: "We at Samoa Air are keeping airfares fair, by charging our passengers only for what they weigh. Your weight plus your baggage items, is what you pay for. Simple."

Samoa Air boss, Chris Langton, told Australia's ABC Radio that it was 'the fairest way of travelling'.

Rather than pay for a seat, passengers pay a fixed price per kilogram, which varies depending on the route length, for the combined weight of themselves and their baggage.

"Airlines don't run on seats, they run on weight, and particularly the smaller the aircraft you are in the less variance you can accept in terms of the difference in weight between passengers," Mr Langton told ABC radio.

"Anyone who travels at times has felt they have been paying for half of the passenger next to them."

Under the new model, Mr Langton described how some families with children were now paying cheaper fares.

"There are no extra fees in terms of excess baggage or anything - it is just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo," he said.

Mr Langton said he believed that charging by weight was 'the concept of the future'.

"People generally are bigger, wider and taller than they were 50 years ago," he said. "The industry will start looking at this."

Ryanair suggested the idea of a 'fat tax' on passengers in 2009 following a poll saying a third of passengers supported it. 

But the idea was dropped as the no frills airline said there was 'no way to collect it without disrupting its 25 minute turnarounds and its online check-in process'.

A few weeks ago I posted a blog on obese passenger should pay extra tax, I mentioned that only the people who are overweight should pay extra as they are making it uncomfortable to the people next to them which I've experienced myself before. Though Samoa Air has introduced a 'pay what you weigh system' where you book a light online adding your approximate weight and you then get weighed at the airport to make sure its accurate.They believe this is a more fair way of travelling as airlines run on weight not seats. This would also make it cheaper for families with children. After reading this article it makes a great point but I think checking peoples weight is too personal. I still think they should charge people extra who are overweight, instead of a pay as you weigh. I'm also wondering how this would work with return flights because people who go on holiday usually put on a bit more weight so they are more heavier on the way back. What do you guys think of this?

SAA app opens up a world of information

South African Airways (SAA) has launched two new mobile applications giving customers access to comprehensive travel and airline information. 

Using iOS or Android mobile phones and tablets, SAA passengers can see booking information, check-in for a flight, find the status of their checked-in luggage, and view information on lounges, flights and destinations from anywhere in the world with mobile coverage. 

Tim Clyde-Smith, SAA's country manager for Australasia, said the new service would appeal to both business and recreational travellers, particularly those often on-the-go. 

"With this new mobile functionality, information such as flight arrivals and departures is now available at passengers' fingertips. 

"Passengers can also search for information on special fares, view Voyager status and miles, use a currency converter, or get an updated 10-day forecast of the weather at any destination that SAA flies to." 

The mobile application for smartphones and tablets is available from the Apple App Store and Google play stores. 

This is another app that has been made for smart phones enabling South African Airways customers access important travel and airline information. This will allow their passengers to access their booking information such as status of their luggage and check-in for a flights. Travel and tourism companies making apps is another trend in the industry many companies are following. They are finding many new ways to provide a better customer experience and satisfaction making their journeys or bookings or food orders that much easier and quicker.I believe this trend will grow even bigger as companies will try to find more ways to make their experience better then its competitors. Although producing new apps is an easy way for competitors to copy.

OAG flight information now available in speech on smart phones and mobile devices

OAG, the global travel and transport information company, announced today its involvement as a key content provider to the new Speereo Mobile Travel Service, a key component of the new Speereo Voice Translator 3.0 mobile application designed for business and leisure travellers.

OAG’s flight schedule and flight status information will offer worldwide flight schedules and real-time information on flight departures and arrivals from smart phones and mobile devices.

The software will enable the user to search an online flight timetable for any destination in the world and will show all convenient direct and connecting flight options, including from Low Cost airlines. It will also offer alternative flight options at airports in the area.

Consumers using the Speereo Mobile Travel Service will be able to track the status of particular flights themselves, or opt in to an SMS flight status alert service.  The Flight Status content provided by OAG identifies a delay or cancellation and gives details about any terminal gate change and baggage information. Now travellers won’t need to worry about arriving too early at the airport or where to pick up their luggage.

The new Speereo Voice Translator is a phrase book covering 11 Asian and European languages, which includes about 4,000 most commonly used phrases including business, technical, medical and legal terms, colloquial phrases, idioms, and slang.

OAG is now involved as a key content provider to the new Speereo mobile travel service. A key component of the new Speereo Voice Translator 3.0 mobile application designed for business and leisure travellers. OAG flight schedule and flight status information will now be available in the app for smart phones. This clever app will let people search for flight timetables in any destination around the world also showing convenient direct and connecting flight options. It will also show alternative flight options at airports in the area. Consumers using the service can track status of particular flights showing if they will be delayed, canceled or if terminal gates have been changed. I think this is a fantastic smart app providing customers business or leisure with even more flight information making their journeys less stressful.

UK agent fined for misuse of marketing information

A UK travel agent has been fined £2,600 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs for breaching the Data Protection Act after using information taken from his previous employer’s marketing database when he set up his own business. Nottingham Crown Court last week found Mr Zbigniew Andrew Soltysik guilty for 13 offences of obtaining, and 13 offences of disclosing, personal information contrary to section 55 of the act. The agent also asked for a further 548 offences of unlawful obtaining and or disclosing of personal information to be taken into consideration. 

Mr Soltysik, from Mapperley, Nottinghamshire removed a database of customer details from his previous employer Quality Travel in Grantham. He then used the database to send marketing material to Quality Travel’s customers when he and his wife set up their own travel agents, New Style Travel. Quality Travel reported the case to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). 

Commenting on the case today the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, said: --I am pleased to see that this case was viewed so seriously that it was committed to the crown court for sentencing. Obtaining and disclosing personal information can have serious consequences and data protection laws protect an individual’s right to personal privacy.”He added: --The result of this prosecution by my office sends out the clear message to those engaged in similar activity that such sharp practice in handling personal information, involving invasion of people’s privacy, will not be tolerated by me, or by the Courts.”

This is a perfect example of the 'Data Protection Act' being broken. A UK travel agency was fined £2600 and ordered to pay £1000 for breach the Data Protection Act. A businessman set up his own travel agent after leaving from his previous employer Quality Travel, but used database of customers details from his previous employer to do direct marketing to Quality Travel's customers. Quality Travel reported the case to the ICO. This example clearly shows breaking this act is taken very seriously by the Information Commissioner's Office. Travel and tourism companies really need to obey the guidelines of the Data Protection Act as there could be big consequences getting caught if not.

Another 4 innovatives uses of the Ipad by the hospitality industry

4food

Make Restaurant Reservations With RezBook

RezBook is a free iPad app started by the folks at UrbanSpoon that allows iPad users to view table layouts and make reservations on the tablet.  The plan is to integrate the app’s services with the traditional paper reservation process to expand the outlets for connecting with customers.  The app also allows its users to indicate allergy information and propose seating preferences.

RezBook

New York Hotel Makes iPad A Control Panel For Hotel Preferences

One of New York’s top luxury hotels, The Plaza, is among the early iPad-adopters to help enhance the customer experience.  The hotel plans to do this by giving their customers control of a large assortment of hotel-related activities straight from the iPad – like requesting room service, scheduling wake-up calls, making spa appointments, and printing boarding passes.  The Plaza have adjusted their definition of luxury to how products can promote the holistic experience of staying at the hotel.  The utilitarian iPad fits this premise precisely.

The Plaza

OrderTalk iPad App For Mobile Meal Ordering

An iPad app produced by OrderTalk brings mobile check out for quick service and full service restaurants.  These hand-held terminals allow restaurant employees to collect order info and relay it to the ticket printer in the kitchen.  Restaurants take orders from in-line customers and have the food prepared and ready to go when reaching the counter.  The app from OrderTalk reduces the chances of error and creates a more efficient process of taking customers orders.  Customers at participating restaurants can order food from their personal or restaurant-provided iPads with the installed app.

OrderTalk

Luxury Resort Provides iPad In Close Proximity To Water

A luxury hotel located on Greece’s Aegian Peninsula, the Danai Beach Resort, offers guests iPads for the duration of their stay and unusually allows users to have the electronic device accompany them poolside and beachside. Apple should probably contact this beach resort to use them as a testing ground for the device’s resistance towards water damage. Regardless of whether its splash-proof or not, reading online magazines on a touch-screen tablet computer while dipping in pools and sipping margaritas is a strong sign of luxury for even the most lavish lifestyles.

Danai Beach Resort

Last week and a few  weeks ago I found other uses of the Ipad being used by the hospitality industry. I seem to find that every few weeks the Ipad is being used for something else making a big impact  and revolutionizing  the hospitality industry. One of the biggest uses in this blog is that a restaurant released their own app allowing customers to not only make reservations but to see the layout of the restaurant and propose a seating preferences. There are many different ways of the Ipad being used in the industry, some hotels such as the 'Danai Beach Resort' provide the ipad to the guest for their duration of their stay in case they would like to use it as it is a handy device which can do many things. The Ipad is proving to be a current trend in the travel and tourism industry as many organisations are now using or considering it.

The difference between data, information and knowledge?

I've also found this quick 2 minute video which helps define data, information and knowledge, thought it was useful as well.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEm_FpTnb1E

The differences between data, information and knowledge 

I found this from a website which clearly defines what each data, information and knowledge is, it explains it very well! Take a look!

Knowledge

Firstly, let’s look at Knowledge. Knowledge is what we know. Think of this as the map of the World we build inside our brains. Like a physical map, it helps us knowwhere things are – but it contains more than that. It also contains our beliefs and expectations. “If I do this, I will probably get that.” Crucially, the brain links all these things together into a giant network of ideas, memories, predictions, beliefs, etc.

It is from this “map” that we base our decisions, not the real world itself. Our brains constantly update this map from the signals coming through our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin.

You can’t currently store knowledge in anything other than a brain, because a brain connects it all together. Everything is inter-connected in the brain. Computers are not artificial brains. They don’t understand what they are processing, and can’t make independent decisions based upon what you tell them.

There are two sources that the brain uses to build this knowledge - information and data.

Data

Data is/are the facts of the World. For example, take yourself. You may be 5ft tall, have brown hair and blue eyes. All of this is “data”. You have brown hair whether this is written down somewhere or not.

In many ways, data can be thought of as a description of the World. We can perceive this data with our senses, and then the brain can process this.

Human beings have used data as long as we’ve existed to form knowledge of the world.

Until we started using information, all we could use was data directly. If you wanted to know how tall I was, you would have to come and look at me. Our knowledge was limited by our direct experiences.

Information

Information allows us to expand our knowledge beyond the range of our senses. We can capture data in information, then move it about so that other people can access it at different times.

Here is a simple analogy for you.

If I take a picture of you, the photograph is information. But what you look like is data.

I can move the photo of you around, send it to other people via e-mail etc. However, I’m not actually moving you around – or what you look like. I’m simply allowing other people who can’t directly see you from where they are to know what you look like. If I lose or destroy the photo, this doesn’t change how you look.

So, in the case of the lost tax records, the CDs were information. The information was lost, but the data wasn’t. Mrs Jones still lives at 14 Whitewater road, and she was still born on 15th August 1971.

The Infogineering Model (below) explains how these interact…

Why does it matter that people mix them up?

When people confuse data with information, they can make critical mistakes. Data is always correct (I can’t be 29 years old and 62 years old at the same time) butinformation can be wrong (there could be two files on me, one saying I was born in 1981, and one saying I was born in 1948).

Information captures data at a single point. The data changes over time. The mistake people make is thinking that the information they are looking at is always an accurate reflection of the data.

By understanding the differences between these, you can better understand how to make better decisions based on the accurate facts.

Data, information and knowledge are always being used as if they were the same thing but there not. This clearly defines what data, information and knowledge each mean and  how they interact with each other. Data are raw facts and is little use to make decisions because its in too much detail. It must be made into information which is data processed in a expressive form. Then there's the human knowledge, the capacity to use information needs some experience and education.

Etihad Airways extends Sabre Technology deal to airberlin

Etihad Airways - considered the World’s Leading Airline by the prestigious World Travel Awards - confirmed earlier it will offer partner airline, airberlin, a range of benefits from its own billion dollar deal with travel technology provider Sabre Airline Solutions.

Under the agreement signed between Etihad Airways and Sabre in December 2011, Etihad Airways gains access to cutting edge, integrated software across its reservations, inventory, marketing, planning, eCommerce, distribution and departure control operations.

This will significantly reduce the airline’s technology costs, streamline its operations, increase revenues, and accelerate its growth around the world.

As part of its strategic equity partnership with airberlin, Etihad Airways will offer access to a range of these benefits, as part of its strategy to identify synergies that could benefit both airlines.

Working with Sabre, potential benefits include:

• Distribution – providing Sabre agencies worldwide with enhanced real-time access to Etihad Airways and airberlin flights and ancillary content.
• Improved joint market share, which could generate per annum benefits of up to US $25 million at current levels.
• Preferential partner access to specialised and highly-skilled consulting resources, which could lead to process improvements across a broad range of business areas, potentially resulting in better schedule connectivity and inventory control, improved distribution channel mix, more competitive revenue management and optimised crew utilisation.

Etihad Airways chief executive, James Hogan, said: “Since we announced our equity partnership with airberlin in December 2011, we have been actively looking for ways the two airlines can work together, and also for benefits each airline already has, which could be extended to the other airline.

“The deal between Etihad Airways and Sabre is a terrific opportunity for airberlin, and will support their drive for growth.”

This is a fantastic partnership between Eithad airways and Sabre, Sabre is going to reduce the airlines costs and also help increase its revenue. This will provide customers a better service as their schedule connectivity, reservations, inventory, marketing, planning, eCommerce, distribution and departure control operations  will all be improved using Sabre technology. 

London's Most High Tech Restaurant?

Printed menus and lingering wait staff are so two minutes ago. The modern Valentine needs a high tech angle for restaurant dining, and the techiest restaurant London has to offer is Inamo.

Sure, Inamo St James has delicious pan-Asian food. But the reason it is possibly London's ideal for the tech head on St Valentine's day, is the interactive tables that means you can fiddle and play throughout your meal - ideal if your date is less than awesome. A projector and touch pad combination pops a menu of options onto the table - from small plates, to large plates, entertainment options and colours and themes.

The ordering system works via Bluetooth. A projector above each table present's the diner's options, while a computer communicates between the table and a central server, which then delivers a print out of each order to the kitchen. Valentines who can't stop fiddling with their phone, or swiping their iPad may just be distracted by the touch tables long enough for you to wow them.

While your sweetheart is ordering delicious black cod, or tasty duck California rolls, you can tweek the ambiance, patterns and colours on the table. Project a beach scene, a splash of bright red, or a swirling psychedelic spin of every pattern in the Inamo hard drive.

If your date is a little dull, there's a memory game, a menu of places to go on to (or escape to) and social media is being added soon (Pinterest for food shots would be ideal). When you're ready to leave, it's a matter of hitting the bill button. The restaurant launched in 2009 - pre iPad era - and as with all tech, there are new and improved versions of touch tables coming onto the market each year. At CES, Microsoft demonstrated the second generation Microsoft Surface, which will give the older projection technology at Inamo a run for its money.

I think interactive tables at a restaurant is a fantastic and a smart idea as not many restaurants have this technology which will make them stand out and appeal from others. It will give the customer the chance to order their food as soon as they are ready and not waiting for the waiter/waitress to ask. This technology also brings something else to the table as the customer can tweek the patterns and colors on the table making it fun for them. The customer can also press the bill button to pay for their meal when they are ready to leave. Also to be added is social media so the customer will also be available to check their Facebook  twitter or browse the internet. This is a fantastic thing to bring to the hospitality section but can also have negatives as not everyone in the world cannot use this technology making it unappealing to those who cannot use it. Which means face to face interaction between customers and waiter/waitresses is still needed.

Tech: How GDS are embracing apps

Putting greater control – literally – into the hands of customers is fast becoming a key area of competition for TMCs. Fortunately, the GDSs are only too happy to help. Matthew Parsons rounds up the latest apps

It is predicted that one in five trips will be booked on a mobile device by 2015 (Global Business Travel Association) and that smart-phones will outnumber PCs by 2013 (Gartner), who’s to blame them? Here's a rundown of what each GDS is offering .....

Tripcase Tools

Sabre – TripCase web and mobile app

TripCase does not allow bookings to be made on a mobile device, by either the traveller or agent, but Vanessa Beasley, director of accounts management at TMC Business Travel Direct, says it is still an invaluable tool with which to win new customers.

Beasley, who has 11 years’ experience at BTD, has in fact worked with Sabre on developing the free app. “More and more of our clients are in media or communications, and the average age of our travellers is going down, so it’s important for us to be able to recommend these tools,” she says.

“The app provides travellers with an easy way to view their itinerary, rather than wading through dozens of emails. You can also store old trips, so it’s useful to see previous hotels.”

Other features include driving directions and alternative schedules, as TripCase automatically keeps users updated of any changes such as flight time or gate changes. “It’s information rather than booking – it’s an information app,” she adds. Sabre encourages development of new ideas for apps via its equivalent of an app store, atwww.sabreredappcentre.com

Amadeus Mobile Partner

The Amadeus Mobile Partner, which agents can use in conjunction with Amadeus e-Travel Management, allows travellers to see the travel plans that have been made.

However, Amadeus told TTG that it will soon launch the Amadeus Mobile Extension. This will let consumers book travel, and make amendments to their plans, which they can’t currently do on the Amadeus Mobile Partner.

It will be available on the Apple and Android mobile platforms, with Blackberry and Windows variations confirmed for later in 2013. The app will sync completely with the online Amadeus booking platform, to maintain consistency in corporate travel policy, and allow corporate travellers to search for flights and European trains, and book themselves.

It will also take in information from the user’s calendar, so a traveller knows what their other commitments are when making travel plans, and can condense all “purchase conditions” into one paragraph.

Travelport’s TMA

Travelport Mobile Agent

Travelport, meanwhile, has managed to make mobile bookings a reality. One of the most recent products to come to market, Travelport Mobile Agent (TMA) was launched on July 25, and the company claims it is the first GDS app that lets agents book while on-the-go, in exactly the same way they would using the desktop version, including the same username and password.

The app follows its ViewTrip Mobile tool, which gave users itinerary information, based on bookings across its Worldspan, Galileo or Apollo systems. TMA works, for now, just for Galileo.

Marco Ferreira, chief executive at Aviateam, was one of the first to trial the tool, which was created by Travel Technology & Solution for Travelport. Portugal-based Aviateam, a general sales agent that works with 160 airlines, has licences for three of its13 staff.

“We’ve tried it for several months,” says Ferreira. “It’s a great tool, as I’m travelling lots – I look after 16 countries. It’s a 24/7 service. We are delighted to see Travelport offering innovative mobile solutions that let us enhance the service we offer to our customers.”

One drawback, however, is that the view is not the same, and you always have to “double check the figures” if they appear small, but you can zoom in on the screen, according to Ferreira. And previous bugs, such as losing data if you lose the signal, have been fixed, he adds.

For Travelport’s UK boss Simon Ferguson, TMA is the perfect way for agents to keep up with their increasingly mobile-savvy customers.  “We are now giving agents the power to modify anytime, anywhere,” he concludes.

For example, a customer might be on a night flight to New York, and urgently need to alter a connecting flight. Making amendments out-of-hours might not be ideal from the agent’s point of view, but as Ferguson points out, “corporates put their faith in TMCs, so travel agents have to be wherever and whenever they’re needed”.

Prices for the app vary, and it is available from Apple’s App store:

Global distribution systems are now joining the mobile party, catching up with their consumer counterparts. From providing itinerary updates , booking tools and city guides, Travelport, Amadeus and Sabre are making apps a priority. The fact that they are opening development to outside parties such as the Travelport Developer Network, means innovation is guaranteed.

Another 3 Innovative uses of the Ipad by the hospitality industry

iPads Promote Hotel’s Social Media Presence

San Diego’s Hotel Indigo is incorporating the iPad to act as a virtual guestbook for guests to use.  Visitors can ask questions about the local area to the hotel’s Twitter followers. They are also encouraged to connect and log comments on the hotel’s other social media pages.  The hotel will have a live feed of their Twitter and Facebook pages streaming on a large display in their lobby, albeit under hotel staff supervision.  Although the hotel’s concierges are present to assist guests, it harnesses its social media pages to create a network of online followers to make area-related recommendations.

Hotel Indigo

iPad Recommends Wine At Florida Restaurant

Nationally-recognized Naples Tomato of Naples Florida recently announced their plans to utilize an iPad to recommend wine for customers instead of a sommelier. By accessing an app, wine connoisseurs can browse through the Mediterranean restaurant’s 550 Wine Spectator-recognized wine list. Naples Tomato plans to update a traditional service by adopting the Apple device for regular use starting this August.

Naples Tomato

New Manhattan Restaurant Plans To Innovate Food-Ordering Process With iPads

Manhattan healthy fast food restaurant, 4food, plans to equip their waiters with iPads for assisting the ordering process.  The use of iPads fits the restaurant’s progressive goal to embed contemporary technology into its restaurant infrastructure to serve healthy food.  The restaurant plans to open its doors on August 16.  Interestingly, the interior of the yet to be opened restaurant will also loosely imitate the aesthetics of an Apple store.

4food

A few weeks ago I found that the Ipad had made a big impact on the hospitality industry and once again I have found more recent updates on the Ipad revolutionizing the hospitality industry. More and more companies are introducing the Ipad to the industry which is making face to face  roles between staff and customers decline. Technology really is starting to replace humans, there are many examples such as above, the Naples Tomato of Naples Florida announced they will have a Ipad instead of a sommelier to recommend wine.

Obese airline passengers should pay extra, economist says

Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that “pay as you weigh” pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.

“To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers,” Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

“As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines” and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel.

Bhatta put together three models for what he called “pay as you weigh airline pricing.”

The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person.

A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare.

Bhatta’s preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit.

That would lead to three kinds of fares – high, average and low, Bhatta said.

Airlines have grappled for years with how to deal with larger passengers as waistlines have steadily expanded. Such carriers as Air France and Southwest Airlines allow overweight passengers to buy extra seats and get a refund on them.

Asked about charging heavier passengers extra, Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz said: “We have our own policies in place and don’t anticipate changing those.”

United Air Lines Inc requires passengers who cannot fit comfortably into a single seat to buy another one. A spokeswoman said the carrier would not discuss “future pricing.”

About two-thirds of U.S. adults are obese or overweight.

In a 2010 online survey for the travel website Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.net), 76 percent of travelers said airlines should charge overweight passengers more if they needed an extra seat.

I feel this is a very interesting topic as many airlines will experience difficulties with this situation. When I was flying from Korea back to England I saw that a passenger was complaining to the air cabin crew staff as she was squashed between to overweight passengers in which they upgraded her to first class for free. I don't agree with weighing everyone that will board the plane as this will make passengers uncomfortable about their weight. I think airlines should follow United Airlines and require passengers who cannot fit comfortably into a single seat to buy another one. This problem should only effect the passengers who are causing the problem which are the overweight passengers.