Travelport has outlined plans to invest in a new, in-house support function for its hotel and car supplier customers as part of its ongoing commitment to grow hotel and car bookings through its two GDS platforms, Galileo and Worldspan, as well as its online leisure portal, Travelport Leisure.
Two new dedicated helpdesks will be established to work closely with more than 230 hotel and car customers to ensure that their content is distributed as widely and effectively as possible to travel retailers across the globe.
The announcement follows other recent hospitality-focused updates from Travelport, including a newly created team of dedicated hospitality business development managers who have been recruited to support travel agencies in key travel countries.
In 2010, Travelport generated a 12.1 percent growth in hotel bookings through Galileo and Worldspan compared to 2009. Travelport said that recent industry figures provided in the latest Pegasus View report indicated that corporate hotel bookings made through the GDS channel will continue to grow by more than 20 percent through the second quarter of 2011.
“There is significant scope for Travelport to play a pivotal role in this area by supporting growth and creating real marketing value for all of our hotel and car partners,” said Bryan Conway, head of global operations for Travelport. “I’m confident that this will be facilitated by establishing an industry-leading hotel and car support function in-house.”
Recruitment is now underway in Dublin, Ireland, to establish the first of the two helpdesks before a second, similar team is recruited in Parsippany, N.J., in the US. Travelport plans to get the two new teams fully trained and up and running by the summer.
Visit www.travelport.com.
