Tag Archives: Amadeus

Amadeus has partnered with Wingify to offer Online Travel Agents (OTAs) customers access to Visual Website Optimiser (VWO), the company’s A/B testing and conversion optimisation platform. The platform helps customers analyse how consumers interact with their website and make data-driven decisions. This will help improve conversion rates at every touch point within their travel website and ultimately optimise the look-to-book ratio, a crucial part in securing more bookings through their site. Today, online travel is bigger than ever, with 148.3 million travel bookings made over the Internet each year.  India-based Wingify is one of the world’s top three software providers that specialise in A/B testing and conversion optimisation. A/B testing is a process that compares two versions of a webpage to determine which one performs better for a defined conversion goal. VWO, Wingify’s A/B testing and conversion optimisation platform, has been used in various use cases, delivering strong results to organisations across diverse industries including Virgin Holidays, KPMG, Samsung and Toyota. Sparsh Gupta, CTO of VWO, said, “Website testing and optimisation can be a significant differentiator for companies in highly competitive markets, such as the travel industry in Asia Pacific. An A/B testing and optimisation programme helps OTAs get a better understanding of how consumers engage with their websites, so businesses can pinpoint where customers are dropping off along the online purchasing journey. By using the insights and proven statistical results to address the leaks and improve their websites, businesses can see returns in the form of higher conversion rates and increased revenue.” Sebastien Gibergues, Global Head of Online Travel at Amadeus, said, “We are committed to adding greater business value for our OTA customers, by equipping them with the …

Amadeus has renewed its distribution agreement with AccorHotels for another three years to ensure that the hotel’s full inventory is made available to Amadeus-connected travel agencies and travellers worldwide. AccorHotels covers all market segments, from economy to luxury accommodation, and Amadeus currently exclusively distributes ibis Budget hotels, AccorHotels’ benchmark budget brand and a European leader in its category. Comfortable, no frills accommodation is increasingly relevant for both leisure and business travellers, and Amadeus currently distributes 150 Ibis Budget properties, with more soon to become available.“The industry is dramatically changing due to the growth of large online players, so hoteliers now more than ever need to retain ownership over their distribution strategy. In response to this, we have seen an increase in demand from hoteliers to distribute their hotel inventory through the GDS channel,” says Peter Waters, Director, Hotel Distribution at Amadeus. “We are delighted to renew the distribution agreement with AccorHotels and look forward to supporting them meet the needs of both business and leisure travellers.”

Amadeus has recently announced its B2B Wallet Prepaid product for the travel agents. To this end, Amadeus is partnering with MasterCard to offer travel agencies payment acceptance and security around the globe, as well as better protection against supplier default when using B2B Wallet. Amadeus’ solution will build on MasterCard’s vast global network to expand virtual B2B payments in travel. Amadeus is also partnering with Ixaris to drive efficient virtual card management on B2B Wallet. With its innovative payments technology, Ixaris allows travel agents to easily create and add funds to their virtual payment cards. “Virtual card technology is the ideal application of Fintech innovation for the travel industry. By combining the strengths of Amadeus, MasterCard and Ixaris, we bring flexibility, efficiency and confidence to travel agent B2B payments. Since we launched the product in some markets in February we have seen overwhelming demand for it and today have customers in 10 European countries,” said Celia Pereiro, Head-Travel Payments, Amadeus. The Amadeus B2B Wallet will be gradually rolled out in select Asia Pacific markets in 2017 to bring travel agencies a virtual payments product with the option of either earning or saving cash when paying travel providers. Hany Fam, President, MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships, says, “With our global acceptance, advanced security and automatic consolidation, Amadeus B2B Wallet gives travel agencies a host of reasons to leave cash, checks and other payment mechanisms behind, saving time and money.”

India’s luxury market’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13 per cent is higher than any of the other BRIC nations, and is the highest of the 25 countries explored in a recent Amadeus report called Shaping the Future of Luxury Travel. This report looks at luxury travel trends until 2025 to help the travel industry better target and service its fastest-growing segment. The report was commissioned by global travel technology provider, Amadeus, and developed with data from Tourism Economics and with dozens of expert interviews with global luxury travel experts across specialist travel concierge agencies, airlines, hoteliers and intermediary suppliers through Connections, a global networking event organiser for luxury travel providers. Global consumers are increasingly spending their disposable income on experiences rather than material goods. Consumers’ desire for life experiences is spurring a growth in luxury travel that is outpacing the rest of the travel industry, finds a new Amadeus report featuring data from Tourism Economics. Between 2011 and 2015, luxury travel, in terms of outbound flights on business or first class, saw a 4.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), versus 4.2% for overall travel. This trend will continue to accelerate over the next ten years, with luxury travel trips projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% between 2015 and 2025, almost a third faster than overall travel at 4.8%. This trend is good news for the luxury travel sector. The report, Shaping the Future of Luxury Travel, reveals the fresh challenges and opportunities that the luxury travel market will face over the next decade.Some key findings from the report include: North America and Western Europe account for 64% of global outbound luxury trips, despite only making up …