Carlson Wagonlit, Travelport India Link

Carlson Wagonlit Travel  and Travelport confirmed that they are on track to comple a large-scale migration of all of CWT India’s GDS business to the Galileo platform.  The conversion from CWT India’s current GDS provider to Travelport’s Galileo system marks an extension of the long standing relationship between the two international organisations who already work closely together in numerous other business travel markets across the globe, Travelport said. 

“This migration to Galileo in India represents another significant step in our commitment to providing best-in-class services to our clients and positions CWT well for future growth in this important business travel market," said Andrew Winterton, president, suppliers, products and technology for CWT. "Through this migration, we are providing our local travel counselors with a superior desktop combined with new, highly relevant local content. We are also implementing a more streamlined and efficient booking process that will result in even better service,”

The Galileo platform was selected as the new GDS for CWT India as part of a wider, business re-engineering initiative aimed at increasing productivity through CWT’s 200 points of sale across the country.  As part of the switch to Galileo, a new, customised agency desktop, which streamlines the booking process by integrating mid- and back-office systems, has been built for the CWT India team.  The new, highly automated booking process targets both a reduction in time spent on administration as well as an enhancement to the overall service provided to the business traveller.  The state-of-the-art desktop also integrates valuable new content such as rail and insurance products provided by local Indian companies.

A leader in India’s corporate travel market, with a growing portfolio of multinational and Indian blue chip companies amongst its customers, CWT India employs more than 1,000 local staff and operates a network of nine offices across eight cities.  Despite generally weak market conditions last year, business travel in India held its own and the nation now ranks within the top three of CWT’s largest countries by volume in the Asia Pacific region. 

“We are delighted that CWT has extended its long standing relationship with Travelport and opted to migrate to the Galileo system in one of the world’s fastest growing business travel markets.  The success of this migration to date has been the result of strong team work by all those involved, including our distributor in India, InterGlobe Technology Quotient, as well as the Travelport and CWT teams based in the region,” said Gordon Wilson, president and CEO of Travelport GDS. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership with CWT India further still through the future roll out of new corporate travel products and solutions.”

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