US-BASED Sabre Travel Network is building the world’s first B2B application store for the travel industry.
The Sabre Red App Centre will be an online marketplace pulling third-party developers worldwide to create B2B travel apps using a Sabre Red App Developer Toolkit. The apps will then be sold to Sabre-connected consultants globally.
Sabre Travel Network president, Greg Webb, interviewed in Singapore, said he was expecting “a couple of hundred” apps.
“To start, we’re putting a significant number of Sabre-based apps (e.g. TripCase) to feed the store, and we’re also working with about 100 third-party developers,” he said.
The store and selected apps, called ‘Red Apps’, will become part of the consultant’s workspace, which is now the Sabre Red Workspace, launched last year.
So far, Sabre has converted 90 per cent of its agencies to this new workspace, and Webb expects Abacus International to get to the same conversion levels in Asia within the next six months.
“Abacus has taken our underlying infrastructure and released the Abacus WorkSpace, which is the same thing (as the Red Workspace), and the app store will roll out to both. We’re talking to Abacus about the roll-out plans, but first we’ll launch it in Sabre markets some time next year,” Webb said.
– How many apps do you need? For more, read TTG Asia, December 2 issue
