TRAVELPORT will roll out its latest product, Travelport Universal Desktop (TUD) in Asia in 2012.
Functioning as a GDS, TUD provides travel experts with a multitude of content options when searching for flights, including hotel and (where appropriate) rail offerings, with the aim of providing extra opportunities for earning revenue.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily during a Travelport media event in Atlanta, Georgia last week, Travelport CMO Gillian Gibson said: “Asia, which is huge and growing, is our biggest focus for marketing and advertising campaigns for TUD this coming year.”
Travelport will kick-off in February its TUD promotional campaign in Asia, starting with an engagement activity in Vietnam for about 20 customers from different markets.
“This is to obtain feedback on what we have developed and (TUD’s) suitability for particular markets, including the need to adapt,” explained Gibson. “At the end of June, we will have a session for about 200 customers in Asia.”
An upcoming development will be the integration of Travelport Rooms and More into TUD by mid-2012. “Following this incorporation, travel experts will have access to information on 85,000 GDS-listed hotels as well as another 600,000 non-GDS listed hotels,” said Travelport CIO, Mark Ryan.
Launched in 2011, TUD has so far been introduced in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Reporting by N. Nithiyananthan
