Travelport celebrates 30+ years in Asia Pacific
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Sydney, September 11, 2009 - Travelport GDS, one of the world’s leading global distribution system (GDS) providers operating the Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan platforms, celebrates more than 30 years in the Asia Pacific region and has pushed ahead of the competition to secure the number one GDS position in the Asia Pacific region with 32% of the GDS share in the first half of 2009.* Despite the overall weak economic conditions for the six month period, Travelport performed better than the industry GDS booking average in a number of countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Nepal and India.
Moreover, September 12 marks two anniversaries for the company. Travelport celebrates 15 years of successful operation in India represented by InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ) and 21 years since the formation of Southern Cross Distribution Systems, Travelport’s business entity in Australia established in 1988. Travelport’s Apollo system has the longest history in the region following its launch in Japan in 1976. Galileo launched in Australia in 1991 and Worldspan commenced operations in Asia in 1998.
“The Asia Pacific region has always been very important to Travelport and we are delighted that more customers are using Travelport’s GDS systems than ever before. Looking at the two countries that celebrate anniversaries this week, Galileo has helped shape the Australian travel market in its 21 years of operation while in India, Galileo is the preferred GDS used by TMC agencies,” said Brad Holman, President and Managing Director of Travelport GDS - Asia Pacific.
“Back in 1988 when the company was established in Australia, it was registered as a ‘provider of travel information and transaction processing services for the travel industry.’ Today we’re so much more than just a technology platform that handles 31 billion transactions each month and are recognised as the GDS provider that remains ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing world and also as an educator and trainer of travel professionals joining the industry,” said Holman.
“Training remains central to our work in the Asia Pacific region with tertiary colleges and training institutions throughout the region offering Travelport GDS courses. In Australia we’d expect to issue more than 6,000 certificates to students this year while in India, more than 100 institutes now offer Galileo training as part of their curriculum with more than 18,000 Indian professionals enrolling in these courses annually,” Holman added.
Commenting on Galileo’s 15th anniversary in India, J.B. Singh, President and CEO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient Pvt Ltd, Galileo’s distribution partner since 1994 said: “It is an exciting time to be celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Galileo journey in India. With rising affordability and improved infrastructure, the inbound, domestic and outbound travel markets have become of increasing interest both regionally and globally. India is one of the most exciting markets in the region, with its continuous expansion largely supported by the current base of 40 million annual domestic air travellers, increasing at an incredibly rapid rate. Analysts have estimated that the Indian online travel market alone will grow to US$5.7bn by the end of 2010.”
“India will still be a market of great opportunity for many years to come, and we see our role as a front runner in technology and distribution solutions as one that is well placed to capture future growth,” Singh added.
Over the past 20 years, Travelport and its Galileo, Worldspan and Apollo GDS platforms have racked up a number of firsts including the first GDS to introduce e-ticketing in 1996 and the first GDS to announce details of a fully-integrated intelligent desktop, Travelport Universal Desktop, that is to be rolled out globally next year. Participating in the Travelport GDS are 385 airlines, 25 car rental companies, 87,000 hotel properties, 400+ cruise lines and tour operators. The system handles some 1.5 billion messages a day, stores more than 4 billion airfares and books around 320 million air segments, 24 million hotel bookings and 19 million car rental bookings annually.
Travelport also supports a number of local community projects on a market by market basis in addition to Travelport Ltd’s sponsorship of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Tourism for Tommorrow Awards that recognise and promote best practice in responsible tourism development and initiatives that protect the environment. Past winners and finalists from the Asia Pacific region include Ecotourism Australia and The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) from Australia, Six Senses Resorts & Spas Thailand, Heritage Watch for protecting Cambodia’s cultural heritage, Sri Lanka’s The Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) and Indonesia’s The Rinjani Trek Ecotourism Programme.
Travelport companies have operated in the Asia Pacific for more than 30 years with Pacific headquarters located in Sydney and regional offices established in Hong Kong in 1991. Travelport has almost 1,000 industry professionals that combine global expertise with local knowledge to provide Travelport’s 15,000 Asia Pacific connected agencies with innovative solutions and best in class customer service. Travelport has a network of offices and distributors in more than 50 Asia Pacific countries and territories.
Galileo has been recognised as the “Best GDS” by e-Travel Blackboard Australia in 2009 and by the Asia edition of Travel Weekly from 2007-2008.
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