Travelport hails ‘monumental moment’ as it launches next gen travel retail platform

Rollout of Travelport+ sees official retirement of heritage Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan systems

Travelport has hailed the release of its next-generation retailing platform as a “monumental moment” in its history.

The GDS and leading travel technology developer has unveiled Travelport+ which is says has been built to “accelerate industry innovation”.

The launch comes after Travelport revealed a radical rebranding under the catchphrase ‘Change is for the brave‘.

The firm describes Travelport+ as a “multi-source content distribution” platform designed to provide a “simplified, capability-rich, marketplace for travel retailing”.

It’s emergence marks the official retirement of legacy brands Galileo, which was originally developed by European airlines including BA, Apollo and Worldspan, which were the foundations of the modern day GDSs.

It said: “As travel distribution has evolved, retrofitting new types of distribution into existing platforms has led to increased complexity across the industry, slowing progress.

“Travelport+ is a true multi-source platform offering more dynamic, differentiated, retail-ready content, delivering better choices for retailers and consumers, in a faster, frictionless way.”

Greg Webb, chief executive at Travelport, said: “It’s a monumental moment in our history and in the development of our industry.

“Travel hasn’t kept up with the evolution of modern digital retail and today, the buying and selling of travel is more complex than it needs to be.

“As Travelport is the only dedicated, global, travel distribution platform, we have made a multi-year investment to accelerate industry innovation in travel retailing.

“Bringing together the best of Travelport’s existing capabilities and tools and driving innovation to deliver the unmet needs of our industry, Travelport+ truly changes the game in the speed of delivery of modern travel retail and offers a fundamental upgrade to travel technology.”

Webb added: “We’re here to power the change makers. We’re championing simplification and supporting our agencies to be modern digital retailers.

“At Travelport, we’ve doubled down on what we do best; great content, better retailing and providing the best value to all parts of the travel industry.

“Nothing else, no conflicts or competing interests, simply powering the next generation of travel.”

The rollout of Travelport+ has started with a number of agency and supplier partners taking part in the initial upgrade.

Global rollout will proceed gradually, said Travelport, supported by a specialist customer support team.

Travelport claims Travelport+ offers improved merchandising capabilities for modern travel agents to operate more efficiently and effectively.

It provides a range microservices through API technology integrations, New Distribution Capability airline content, a trip manager and enhanced airline ticket exchange tools.

The firm said: “Travelport+ offers better retailing and merchandising capabilities which in turn leads to higher value trips.

“Through better efficiency, supported by Travelport’s leading data and insights, Travelport+ will unlock the potential for better offers and more content for all parts of the travel industry.”

How explains the advantage of Travelport+ in three key areas:

Content+

Travelport+ will bring together a wide range of air (ATPCO, LCC and NDC), car, hotel, and rail content.

It will achieve this by simplifying how Travelport connects and delivers travel-relevant content, regardless of the source, the seller, and how it’s consumed.

It will also offer the tools to control new content in a way that optimises revenue and provides a new approach to profile management where all components of a traveller’s journey are able to be retrieved, modified, and combined in any manner possible, regardless of source.

Retail+

Travelport+ will include an ever-broadening array of new tools with merchandising (including cross-sell and up-sell) capabilities designed to improve the traveller experience, while maximising revenue and customer loyalty for travel retailers and suppliers.

Merchandising capabilities will build on our existing configurable storefront for travel retailers that delivers personalised and dynamic offers to provide travellers with the best possible choice.

Embedded intelligence will enable both travel retailers and suppliers to continually optimise their offers, as well as their pricing and merchandising strategies.

Value+

Travelport+ will enable customers to more tightly control their “cost-to-serve” and enhance their value generation through a series of performance, efficiency and automation tools.

The platform will also improve the user experience for developers, propelling traveller self-service and reducing pain points with exchanges, refunds and order management.