Africa’s largest travel group BidTravel has signed up as the launch partner on the continent for the Travelport Universal Desktop.
Travelport partners with BidTravel for African launch
Africa’s largest travel group, BidTravel, has signed up as the launch partner on the continent for the Travelport Universal Desktop.
Testing of a bespoke version of the point-of-sale service is already underway at the company which operates travel management company brands in southern Africa such as HRG, CWT, BCD, Travel Connections, Harvey World Travel and Travelwise.
The Universal Desktop deal is part of a new agreement covering access to the Galileo GDS and other technology from the Travelport stable.
The BidTravel brands in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana will have access to Travelport’s air, hotel and car content, including a number of exclusive deals signed with African airlines.
Travelport’s ePricing technology will also be deployed across the BidTravel network.
The TMC’s information technology executive director Dawood Tagari said: “We are confident that this enhanced partnership with Travelport will translate into additional sales opportunities for both our business and leisure travel agency partners.
“We thought long and hard about what we needed from our travel technology provider and Travelport’s innovative product suite and rich content offering as well as its ambitious plans for the future with its Universal API and Universal Desktop technology, most closely matched the goals and growth strategy of our organisation.”
Travelport Africa managing director Mark Meehan described the deal as a “clear endorsement” of efforts being making in the region for a number of years.
“We are looking forward to working very closely with BidTravel over the coming months and years to ensure that we help them to execute their long term strategic plans,” he added.
