DOTW reports significant growth in April
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Wholesale travel company Destinations of the World (DOTW), has revealed its hotel supply has grown 50% in comparison to April last year, supporting a distribution growth of more than 80%. Summarising the company’s current expansion, Steve Harrop, group COO, said: “Our distribution has grown phenomenally, and continues to do so, mainly due to driving forward our XML connectivity with large distributors of travel related products globally. Subsequently, we augmented our direct allotment and rate contracts with dynamic rates and inventory, and introduced a much broader product range offering instant availability and dynamic competitive prices.”The growth in supply is supported by a scope of strategies that includes XML, Direct Connect to access dynamic rates and inventory and strategic distribution partnerships. Since November last year, DOTW has successfully directly connected to 35 leading hotel brands for dynamic rates and inventory, with several more imminent connections in the pipeline before the peak demand season, and continuous direct connect partnerships with major hotels throughout the year. XML connectivity to third party suppliers is also underway, with two major third party suppliers already connected and a further 23 in the pipeline. The growth in distribution is mainly attributed to the expansion of XML customer accounts, which have grown by 79% as of April, in comparison to the same period last year. Further, with effect from this month, DOTW will be the first aggregator to distribute content globally via Amadeus Hotel Plus, to support wider content distribution and increase efficiency in travel transactions for Amadeus subscribers.Commenting on the company’s future expansion, group MD Keith Fernandez said: “Our Direct Connect development is a key strategic focus for 2011, which includes adding a total of 50,000 hotels by the second quarter of this year to support our planned distribution increase to over 450,000 points of sales globally. The third and fourth quarters of this year will include further direct connect developments, and the implementation of car hire, travel insurance and cruise products, via our online reservations system, DOTWconnect. Our focus is to continue offering our customers seamless access to a vast scope of available competitive products, and provide our suppliers with a seamless global distribution network.”
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