Travelport embarks on drive to grow hospitality business

TRAVELPORT is significantly expanding its hospitality team this year as part of a global effort to increase hotel bookings through its two GDS platforms, Galileo and Worldspan, and online leisure portal Travelport Leisure.

Heading the team is group vice president for hospitality and partner marketing Niklas Andréen, who will ensure that Travelport’s GDS channel becomes more of a value-based marketing platform for hoteliers instead of just a transaction platform.

Paul Adams has also been promoted to hotel and car rental director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, while Joe Lim and Keith Harrison will continue to head similar dedicated hospitality supplier teams in Travelport’s Asia-Pacific and Americas regions respectively.

The company is also in the process of recruiting dedicated hospitality business development managers to be based in key travel markets (see Hot Jobs). They will work with travel agents to harness the potential of the hotel sector and provide on-the-ground training and educational support to help them earn new incremental revenue.

In 2010, Travelport generated a 12.1 per cent growth in hotel bookings through Galileo and Worldspan compared to 2009.

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