Nigeria, Algeria and Africa based Travel Agencies are integrating Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre on Travel Website, Portals and Apps

A global distribution system (GDS) is a database capable of storing and updating enormous information on the supply of a wide range of tourism products worldwide. GDSs enable the travel agents to access, in real-time, availability, features and prices of flight tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises, ferry reservations, trains and other services. With a Global distribution system integrated to their website, travel agencies can allow their customers to search and book travel products and services and issue tickets too.

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Global Distribution System

Global Distribution System

Travel agencies are greatly aided by GDS systems because they are enabled to offer their customers rates, inventory, discounts, rooms, and descriptions on a real-time basis. In other words, global distribution systems are intermediaries between travel product suppliers –and travel retailers who sell tickets to the final consumer.

Main features of GDS:

• Report availability and prices of travel products

• Reserve user requests.

• Sale and ticketing

• Track sales (extend customer’s stay, change of flights, etc).

• Facilitates control management for travel agencies).

Evolution of GDS

The prototype of GDS in the travel industry can be seen in the 1950s as the traditional legacy business model which inter-operated between airline vendors. Computer reservation systems (CRS), at the initial stage, was used by the airline companies as an automated booking system, but later, travel agents were given access. Around 1980, CRS enabled travel agents to connect to various travel providers in a single system. At this stage, in addition to flights, hotels and car rentals were included. CRS acquired much strength by late 80s being so helpful to both suppliers and distributors. In the 90s, computerized reservation systems of airlines were transformed to global distribution systems (GDS). So we see that GDS has developed from airline alliances and ended up becoming independent business units with product internationalization and introduction of new products, especially hotel rooms, which is why Amadeus and Galileo software are used for all the top travel agencies worldwide.

GDS integration for travel agencies and suppliers of travel products

Travel agencies must have full access to a global distribution system GDS. To get connected to a GDS, travel agencies need a contract. This will enable the travel agents to provide an astonishing amount of travel product rates and information to their customers, at the lowest possible rates. An experienced travel technology company can integrate any GDS to the computer reservation system or website of a travel agency.

It’s critical also for the properties to be on a GDS. Travelers now go to travel portals to find travel products. So hotels, car rentals, etc, have to be there to get Internet visibility and, thus, more reservations. A GDS allows real-time access to inventory system of a hotel with the current prices, discounts, room types, facilities like Wi-Fi and different aspects of interest to the potential customer.

Owners can hire a good travel technology company to get access to the GDS of their choice. A property can be connected only in one GDS provider. If the property owner wants to change the provider, he can cancel the existing provider and activate another with a switch letter.

Global Distribution Systems

How much does it cost?

To integrate GDS to your system, you’ll have to pay a one-time setup cost and pay a monthly charge of a minimum amount per reservation.

Major GDS systems

Amadeus was started in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS in order to create a European GDS, by fusing their CRSs. In 1989, seven more airlines joined Amadeus and began to allow travel agents to book flights through neutral screens. It is now the largest leisure package distributor in the world. Through Amadeus GDS integration, a travel agent can offer travel products from 430 airlines in 195 countries, 32 car rental companies in 37,918 locations, 20 cruise lines and 300,000 hotel properties. More than 100,000 travel agencies are connected with Amadeus GDS.

Sabre, a joint venture by American Airlines and IBM, was started in 1960. In 1970, Sabre system began to be installed in travel agencies. Now 55,000 travel agencies use Sabre GDS to book products from 400 airlines, 88,000 hotels, 24 car rental brands, and 13 cruise lines.

Galileo and Worldspan are the other two major GDSs. There are also third party consolidators like Sahara, Infini (Japan), Axess (Japan), Tapas (Korea), Fantasia (South Pacific), and Abacus (Asia/Pacific) that cater to particular regions or countries.

The big consolidators also include such as Expedia, Orbitz (Merchant program registration needed), Hotels.com, Travelocity, AAA, Hotwire, Priceline and TravelWeb.

The future of GDS

As a tool of of content aggregation, GDS is here to stay and be more powerful. Novel technological solutions in middleware continue to appear. Global distribution systems have a long way to go.

Travel Ticketing System and Itinerary Software for Agencies in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand

Ticketing system in travel technology means an online booking system to search and book, flights, hotels, transfers, sightseeing and holiday packages. Travel ticketing system supports immediate booking and request management (*which is called queuing up), both the models. Ticketing system also refers to travel software (travel agency software), which are widely used by global travel management companies.

Looking for a Travel Portal – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

travel software

A ticketing system / travel agent software is online system to store & to retrieve travel related contents. The data may come from the ticketing system’s database or it may come from the GDS Systems – Global Distribution Systems or the third party suppliers. Ticketing system may process the transactions related to flights, accommodations, transfers, cars, cruise and other travel related services. There are three kinds of ticketing systems, which are most widely used today.

• Ticketing System connected to GDS
• Ticketing System connected to Third Party Suppliers
• CRS based Ticketing System

A ticketing system / travel software, while issuing any ticket connects to primary flights / hotels / cars data to find real time availability and pricing. Once the availability is confirmed, users can proceed to make payment to confirm the booking. This whole process is automated and end users get the booking confirmation / PNR or voucher in no-time after making the payment. Below are distinct advantages of travel ticketing system / travel agency software.

• Round o clock availability, improved sales and great client satisfaction.
• Fully automated system, and thus saves alot of time of end users.
• PNR / Vouchers are generated immediately.
• Comprehensive backend with markup module, currency module, report module and user DB.

Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development project.

Cost of Travel Portals, Online Booking Systems and Travel Technology Solutions in Egypt.

If you are associated with the travel industry as a travel company, tourism development organization, resort, travel agency, consolidator or a travel adviser; you may be using travel technology solution that lends you the edge to attract/retain customers and beat competition. Travel portal software is ideally suited for those travel agencies who require flexible, easy-to-use solutions to automate and control their business online. Your experience in your industry, backed by this robust technology, will give you the necessary ammunition to skyrocket your business through the web.

To know Cost of Travel Portal Development – fill requirement form to get a quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

cost of travel software

So, how to enter the OTA market? How much it cost to build an online travel portal??

To set up OTA software, one needs to have a clear idea regarding the cost involved in developing a travel portal. After-all nothing comes without a cost. For every dollar that you spend in developing the travel software, you should get 10 fold back as the latest technology driven online travel booking software will drive more customers - means increase in sales & revenue.

The overall project cost depends on the complexity and depth of your requirement. If you know nothing about development and cost, here are some points to be considered:

1. Choice of t-commerce platform:

A comprehensive travel portal can be developed on various t-commerce platforms like flight booking engine, hotel booking engine, car rental software, cruise booking engine, bus reservation system, holiday and packages booking system etc. Depending upon one’s requirements and business vision, the specific platform can be chosen. While choosing the appropriate travel module, you need to know the cost associated with it.

Flight Booking Engine: It is one of the leading travel commerce platforms that provide distribution, technology for global tourism and travel industry. An airline reservation system comes with an XML integration, which is ideally provided by some API or GDS (Global Distribution System) consolidators. API/GDS is a network operated by a company that enables automated transactions between third parties and booking agents in order to provide travel-related services to the end consumers.

A basic flight reservation system with an API integration usually costs between 6K to 9K USD. For a booking engine with GDS integration, say Amadeus, you can add 25% to above cost.

Hotel Booking Engine: Online hotel reservations are a popular method for booking hotel rooms. It is a computerized system that stores and distributes information of a hotel, resort, or other lodging facilities. Large hotel chains typically have direct connections to the airline national distribution systems (GDS) (Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus, and Worldspan). These in turn provide hotel information directly to the hundreds of thousands of OTA through their XMLs, which are integrated in a travel booking software.

A hotel booking engine with a base level design can cost you between 5K to 7K USD. Any customization in terms of design, functionality, features etc., can cost you more.

Car Rental, Cruise and Bus Booking Systems: For a comprehensive travel booking engine, these all modules play a vital role in terms of business spread. According to a study report, the travel portal with these comprehensive services have more visitors compared with a single service provider booking engine.

Generally adding a car rental software or cruise / bus booking engines in a travel portal costs between 3K to 5K USD each. However the cost varies if you go with a single module system development.

b2c booking engine cost

2. Choice of business models:

There are basically two different types of business models - B2C, B2B. Based on the audience, one can select his appropriate business model.

B2C: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model refers to the tactics and best practices used by the companies that sell their product and services directly to the consumers. For a booking engine with B2C model, you can add 15% to above cost.

B2B: Business-to-Business (B2B) usually connects customers & partners to important company and product info. In simple words, it refers travel AGENT module. This model ensures your business growth as well as stability. For a booking engine with B2B model, you can add 30% to above cost.

Travel portal development cost varies a lot based on the features and platforms associated with the system. It can be commented after going through the detailed requirements. Professional travel portal development companies have ready framework for different type of travel models and thus using that, may reduce the time and development cost. Better to share your scope with a professional development company and get the absolute idea about pricing.

Regarding Author:

Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. 

Having Travel booking System and Agency Software, Ways to Boost Bookings on User and Agents Channel

Being into the travel business, you might be thinking of innovative strategies to enhance your business growth and provide maximum exposure to your organization. As a tour operator and travel agency, a significant amount of your resource, which could be concluded in the form of time and money, is invested towards the sole purpose of advertising. This is a very well planned strategy as growing your business and bringing in enhancement in the revenue is not possible without a well-architect and well-implemented marketing strategy.

For Custom Travel Software – Get a Project Quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Online travel software

Advertising has always been given an eminent position, be it at present day business or the organizations that had conducted business in the past or the one who will be doing so in the future. It is the well planned advertisement of the products that has helped in their introduction to us and we in turn purchasing them as a consumer. Advertisement has acted as the backbone of every industry, be it the most famous brand of car BMW, be it the fashion brand Allen Solly or one of the famous brands in the hospitality industry “The Marriott group of hotels”.

One of the eminent changes that we have experienced to be a part of the advertisement industry is the impact of social media and the impact that they has on transforming the whole idea of advertising. The present time advertisement provides more emphasis on customer engagement and building the very important element of “TRUST” among the customer. Building trust among the customer has been never being such an eminent part of advertisement as it is now. Success of online travel software totally depends on that.

There has been a sudden shift in what we call as focus of advertisement. At present the focus of every advertisement strategy that we formulate is based on building brand loyalty rather than building a brand image, which has been the sole focus of the process earlier. The task of building brand loyalty is much more challenging and failure to conduct a healthy dialogue with the customer may lead to loosing the business. This is the main reason behind majority of the companies at present outsourcing their advertisement segment to specialized social media marketing agencies.

Will it surprise you, if we say that there is a way to achieve the above mentioned goal of advertisement that is much easier, cheaper and at the same time consumes less time. This is a process that requires minimal effort on your part and if executed accurately has the capability of enhancing your online booking sale. PROVAB TECHNOSOFT has come up with a new idea called “Customer Review Module for Travel Software”. This is nothing but the travel product review, displayed on the travel portal or the travel agency web-page. By implementing this method of advertisement using the social media, we are not asking you to abandon the other strategies that you had been using for advertising your product. Customer review is a more conventional form of advertising, that has been often overlooked and under-rated when it comes to a way of generating social buzz for your travel business.

Boost Online Bookings

“What will happen if you allow your customers to post reviews about your travel business”? have this question ever invaded your mind. It is about letting your customer share their experience with your travel system and rate your service in an open manner. This is a way to let your customer know that their experience and satisfaction matters to you. It is about letting your customers and prospective customers know that you have architect your travel business to provide them with the best service and is in the process of constantly improving the service through customer feedback.

Benefits Associated with the Process

Increased Credibility

When customers get the opportunity to read the reviews about your service, it acts in a positive manner for your credibility. Your travel product takes the form of real people story from just being a collection of photographs, description and numbers. It is the real time experience that you customers have, described in their own words.

A Boost for your Online Booking Sale

As per the survey conducted on including Customer Review as a part of advertisement strategy, it has been revealed that there has been a dramatic increase in the online sales. One more aspect that was revealed is the implementation of this strategy by majority of the renowned online retailer. There is a science that could be related to the strategy and if you have not thought about it, then please think as this could be literally termed as free money.

Collateral Advertisement

Collateral advertisement is a real term that is present in the advertisement world. Here I am using the term with a little twist. The great part about customer review is generation of advertisement without focusing on your effort put forward towards the element of advertisement. This provides you with the opportunity to focus on the business aspect that is really required, which according to me is excellent service. Providing excellent service which in turn becomes the reason for generating positive customer review which is away to take your business towards the path of growth.

We would also like to mention that our travel technology product is not only about support our client's operational requirement, but in a way is the process for simplifying the customer engagement and feedback process. We are the provider of top-notch customer review service which provides you with the option of choosing between simple yet powerful and customized premade widgets to custom made solutions with the implementation of powerful APIs.

Agile Travel Software (B2C/B2B) for Travel Agencies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Singapore

Software designing is filled with a lot of buzz words at present and the most frequent of them is the word “Agile”. There are other similar kinds of words like SCRUM, KANBAN, Crystal Clear and Extreme Programming. Top travel technology companies around the globe adopting agile design process for travel portal software development, travel CRM and mobile apps.

Hire Travel Technology Company – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Travel Technology Company

The place that the word Agile holds in software designing could be explained with the help of the waterfall model. You may have read about the concept of waterfall model, when you were undergoing your bachelors in engineering. Waterfall model was also an ornate term used for defining a concept. The waterfall model is sequential designing process, according to which progress is defined as flowing downward like that of a waterfall. The various phases of the waterfall model include Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, Implementation and maintenance. Leading travel software companies are adopting the same model for scalable travel portal development projects.

The waterfall model dates back to the olden days when the Romans involved themselves in the construction work. The main theory that the Romans has put forward and the concept that is implemented in the Waterfall model is the fact, that when you build a bridge it is a challenging task to bring about change or fix the bridge later. Even if you find a path of fixing the bridge, it will be costly. It is very essential to know what you want at the beginning, when you are designing the project.

The case is different with the software, wherein you can bring about changes in the end-products. Looking at the demand that the users pose to the current software industry, it would not be wrong to say that the users expect change in the end-product very frequently. I can put forward a very common concept in regards to the reason behind demanding change in the end-product. During the beginning of the project an user might have a very vague idea about the features that they want in the project, and a strong opinion is formed with the progression of the project depending on the business needs.

Agile travel portal development

Now I could clearly say that, it is the benefits associated with the Agile designing process that had helps in creating an exclusive place when it comes to software designing. The Agile design process enables the project managers to generate a condition that leads to clear and frequent interaction among the customers, business folks and the delivery team.

There are many projects that Provab.com have accomplished and in which the Agile method was implemented very effectively. These are the projects wherein the features associated with the end-result were quite different in comparison to the features that were through about, while beginning the project. The factor that mattered for us as an organization was the level of customer satisfaction and appreciation that these projects brought along with them.

As mobility solutions depend on the web services generated from the web projects, agile development process will be the backbone of travel portal development companies. 

How travel portal software and booking systems are helping B2B, B2C travel agencies in India

In the modern technological era, online travel portals play a key role especially in the tourism sector by benefiting both the business and the customer. It facilitates online booking, which is an easy approach for the travelers. A lot of innovation and technological advancement is happening on web portals intend to provide the travelers with online and on-mobile booking approach. In tourism industry, agencies noticed that most of the people in recent days are choosing web medium to make their tour arrangements, and the online bookings have been tremendously increasing year-by-year. So they have witnessed travel software solutions will be a productive business in the e-business industry.

To know Cost of Travel Portal Software – fill requirement form to get a quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Travel Portal Software

These agencies are striving to be the best counterparts in the market by providing travel reservation interface as per the consumer requirements and needs. Consumers are provided with various services like lodge booking, air ticket booking, car rentals, transport booking and many more by these online portals. Agencies arrange these components in different segments so that consumers can make their bookings so easily.

Travel Reservation Software:

Online travel web portal is a web booking engine including payment gateway, vacation packages, flights, hotels - all together in a single system. It acts as booking system that helps travelers to make advance bookings for their next travel, vacations. The travel industry software is the best option for you as it can manage various segments like beginning search, response, selection summary, payment and booking confirmation. Also, it is customized to meet the everyday demands of travel companies as well as the end to end consumers.

However, reservation software systems have greater demand across the market due to the following reasons:

Enhancement Options: Reservation software system is featured with enhancement options that allow you to add during the reservation process so easily.

Peak Time Bookings: In general, there will be heavy traffic for bookings during the festive season or peak time, which causes disturbance for travelers while planning a trip sometimes, may not be able to make advance booking arrangements. This problem can overcome with the travel reservation software system.

Data Management: There will be thousands of traveler bookings at a point of time that overloads the website, which arises multiple errors for consumers during the reservation booking process. As the travel reservation software systems are equipped with technological modules, overloaded data can be managed and can make the booking process trouble-free.

Auto-Cancellation: Travel reservation software provides an option of online booking cancellation for travelers whenever they want to be. After the cancellation, money will be refunded directly to their accounts. Earlier, it is a difficult task as consumers have to approach offline travel agencies for reservation cancellation which is a time taking process.

In consideration with all these features, the demand for travel software solutions have been increased among both offline and online travel companies. Here, the important task for travelers is to select the best company which offers reservation software system with all required modules. 

Travel Agency Software

Why travel reservation software for agency?

Complete automation is the clear answer for this. Travel companies, charter, event organizers, cruise, tour operators, inbound, outbound and more are using travel web portals. The online booking engine is featured with custom made, user friendly and efficient that helps you to dispatch online travel sales successfully. It is affordable and serviceable for any type of travel business whether it is a small, medium or large scale company though their purpose of usage can be different. Travel agencies can improve their business productivity and income which leads to expansion of business lines globally, with the influence of travel reservation software system.

It integrates online bookings, comes with tools specific to the tourism sector and also has a capability of handling B2B and B2C bookings. In recent days, most of the travel agencies are heading towards travel web portal development and reservation system due to this, a traveler has a wide range of choice in the online market to approach for efficient planning a trip in advance.   

How travel portal software and booking systems are helping B2B, B2C travel agencies in India

In the modern technological era, online travel portals play a key role especially in the tourism sector by benefiting both the business and the customer. It facilitates online booking, which is an easy approach for the travelers. A lot of innovation and technological advancement is happening on web portals intend to provide the travelers with online and on-mobile booking approach. In tourism industry, agencies noticed that most of the people in recent days are choosing web medium to make their tour arrangements, and the online bookings have been tremendously increasing year-by-year. So they have witnessed travel software solutions will be a productive business in the e-business industry.

To know Cost of Travel Portal Software – fill requirement form to get a quote – http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html

Travel Portal Software

These agencies are striving to be the best counterparts in the market by providing travel reservation interface as per the consumer requirements and needs. Consumers are provided with various services like lodge booking, air ticket booking, car rentals, transport booking and many more by these online portals. Agencies arrange these components in different segments so that consumers can make their bookings so easily.

Travel Reservation Software:

Online travel web portal is a web booking engine including payment gateway, vacation packages, flights, hotels - all together in a single system. It acts as booking system that helps travelers to make advance bookings for their next travel, vacations. The travel industry software is the best option for you as it can manage various segments like beginning search, response, selection summary, payment and booking confirmation. Also, it is customized to meet the everyday demands of travel companies as well as the end to end consumers.

However, reservation software systems have greater demand across the market due to the following reasons:

Enhancement Options: Reservation software system is featured with enhancement options that allow you to add during the reservation process so easily.

Peak Time Bookings: In general, there will be heavy traffic for bookings during the festive season or peak time, which causes disturbance for travelers while planning a trip sometimes, may not be able to make advance booking arrangements. This problem can overcome with the travel reservation software system.

Data Management: There will be thousands of traveler bookings at a point of time that overloads the website, which arises multiple errors for consumers during the reservation booking process. As the travel reservation software systems are equipped with technological modules, overloaded data can be managed and can make the booking process trouble-free.

Auto-Cancellation: Travel reservation software provides an option of online booking cancellation for travelers whenever they want to be. After the cancellation, money will be refunded directly to their accounts. Earlier, it is a difficult task as consumers have to approach offline travel agencies for reservation cancellation which is a time taking process.

In consideration with all these features, the demand for travel software solutions have been increased among both offline and online travel companies. Here, the important task for travelers is to select the best company which offers reservation software system with all required modules. 

Travel Agency Software

Why travel reservation software for agency?

Complete automation is the clear answer for this. Travel companies, charter, event organizers, cruise, tour operators, inbound, outbound and more are using travel web portals. The online booking engine is featured with custom made, user friendly and efficient that helps you to dispatch online travel sales successfully. It is affordable and serviceable for any type of travel business whether it is a small, medium or large scale company though their purpose of usage can be different. Travel agencies can improve their business productivity and income which leads to expansion of business lines globally, with the influence of travel reservation software system.

It integrates online bookings, comes with tools specific to the tourism sector and also has a capability of handling B2B and B2C bookings. In recent days, most of the travel agencies are heading towards travel web portal development and reservation system due to this, a traveler has a wide range of choice in the online market to approach for efficient planning a trip in advance.