While travel volume is expanding at a dynamic pace, travelers are slowly getting bored with the traditional, readymade package holidays. Now, travel agencies and tour operators have begun to offer the innovative ‘Dynamic packaging’ in order to attract more cost-conscious and variety-loving customers. For B2C Travel Portal Development – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html Dynamic packaging enables the travelers to create their own package of flights, accommodation, and car rental in lieu of buying a pre-defined package. The customer can pick, choose and design his/her own ideal holiday. It’ll be not the tour operator but the customer who chooses the beach where she’d sunbathe, the hotel she’d stay and the flight she’d fly to her destination. With dynamic packaging, the travel agent or the tour operator can provide a tailor-made holiday package which best suits the traveler’s needs and tastes. Dynamic packages are mainly sold online. The big margins and high sale price endear this novel travel product to travel agents and tour operators. Many of them are busy getting travel technology companies to build travel software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels. Travel software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels must be able to dynamically source inventories of flights, accommodation and car rental components for the package in real-time. The software also has to dynamically synthesize the customer’s choices into packages and give the total price. Individual prices are not informed to the customer, but, anyway, they’ll be less than when they are bought as single components. Travel software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels will provide the travel agent or the tour operator an inventory management system, mark-up engine with business rules and a ticket issuing and resolution system. With such a specialist software, you can offer dynamic packages to your customers direct from your website. An experienced travel technology company can design your system and deliver a viable dynamic package solution for travel retailers. A good travel booking software development firm can integrate and deploy dynamic packages –flight search engine, hotel search engine / hotel reservation system, car module, cruise and vacation packages – on travel retailer’s websites. It will serve B2C B2B and B2B2C categories. In other words, dynamic packaging connects flights, hotels, car rentals, cruise, etc, in the travel retailer’s booking software and enable him to offer a very wide range of travel products that can be booked together as a package. Customers will be able to book flight tickets, hoter rooms, cruises, etc simultaneously. Main components of dyanamic package are dynamic inventory sourced from wholesalers, facility provided to customers to choose from that dynamic inventory, and enabling of customers to book in real-time. Even a sub-agent can offer dynamic packages to his customers using. Travel agency software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels empowers travel retailers to package various travel products in real-time and sell it in one transaction across multiple distribution channels. With such a sophisticated software, travel agents can deal with both internal and externally sourced products (air, rail, hotel, activities, transfers, cruises, etc) for packaging. A travel retailer will get the following benefits by integrating travel software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels Special discounts for dynamic bookings Deal with supplier-negotiated contracts - content, inventory, pricing, pricing rules Integrate with GDS and external supplier and wholesaler systems in real time Sell packages on multiple channels - B2C, B2B, call center, travel stores, XML Retailers can offer their own dynamic packages Increase in revenue and sales volume Agents can offer different dynamic packages like flight+hotel, flight+car, hotel+car or flight+hotel+car Customers will get full service packages Customers can produce their own itineraries Enhance profitability of your travel booking business in general Package and market a combination of travel products such as flights, hotels, activities, tours, transfers and various items Travel software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels will enhance your agency’s performance in web service, mobile and social networks Administer markups and commissions Automate operations and boost efficiency with an integrated back-office and accounting system Create accounting, management, operational or custom reports quickly Produces vouchers, itineraries, invoices, bills, passenger manifest reports, etc. Consumers can customize itineraries through one or more websites. They can choose the dates of travelling by themselves while a package tour always start and end at dates common for all the travelers who participate in that package. In a package tour, the travelers have to invariably go to all the places prescribed in the tour, or stay at hotel! Nevertheless, the traveler has to pay for all those travel products which do not interest him. But with the travel software with dynamic packaging of flights and hotels he can eliminate all the travel components that do not interest him. Thus dynamic package software is useful for both the travel retailer and the travelers. Regarding Author: Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel software development and marketing strategy implementation.
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http://www.provab.com - With summer is on, people are planning for travel & vacations. Travel agencies are also pushing the operations to meet the demands. As the competition is high, its important to connect to right clients, either using a great travel agency software, supported by a good CRM team. Following are a few tips to increase the sales. Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html As most of sales are through online travel agency software, use a travel software which connects to social media. Most of the clients read the reviews before they make the purchase. Find the real interests of your potential customers and highlight them. Encourage them to send and update the reviews / comments on your travel website, which is anyways accessed by several potential clients. Going to places is always trending in the social media. Travellers when dissatisfied or angry at a restaurant, hotel, or a flight immediately inform the world through social media. Sometimes they appreciate good service. Interact with them, win their trust, and transform them to your loyal customers. Create a separate travel blog to accommodate the end user contents. With pictures, videos, questions or statuses you can get followers and likes. Social media will tell you where to improve. Social media is big tool to boost sale. A buzzing travel portal will always convert more sales. Offers are an all-time favourite for customers. Declare discounts and freebies frequently. Sell hotel booking, flight booking and activities together. Travel packages attract even reluctant customers. Publish everything using the CMS of your travel portal software and share it to clients. Use SMS sending software to sell ‘last-minute’ flight tickets at great discounts, when there are unexpected cancellations in flights or when tickets are not sold out enough. Who will not desire to get highly discounted last-minute deals to their dream destinations on their mobiles. You can also use your mobile app for this. You can keep your customers updated on new destinations etc.
Your travel software must remind them about travel insurance, special baggage regulations or about the delay of their flight. Users will always appreciate taking care of these small things. You can concentrate on a certain demographic area, a type of travel, a destination and make a travel niche. Your travel software will play a significant role in keeping in contact with these special people even when they are on the move. Regarding Author: Author is a travel technology expert and has been involved in several travel portal development projects. http://www.provab.com - A global distribution system (GDS) is a database capable of storing and updating enormous information on the supply of a wide range of tourism products worldwide. GDSs enable the travel agents to access, in real-time, availability, features and prices of flight tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises, ferry reservations, trains and other services. With a Global distribution system integrated to their website, travel agencies can allow their customers to search and book travel products and services and issue tickets too. Looking for a Travel Portal – Get a Project Quote - http://www.provab.com/get_quote.html Global Distribution System Travel agencies are greatly aided by GDS systems because they are enabled to offer their customers rates, inventory, discounts, rooms, and descriptions on a real-time basis. In other words, global distribution systems are intermediaries between travel product suppliers –and travel retailers who sell tickets to the final consumer. Main features of GDS: • Report availability and prices of travel products • Reserve user requests. • Sale and ticketing • Track sales (extend customer’s stay, change of flights, etc). • Facilitates control management for travel agencies). Evolution of GDS The prototype of GDS in the travel industry can be seen in the 1950s as the traditional legacy business model which inter-operated between airline vendors. Computer reservation systems (CRS), at the initial stage, was used by the airline companies as an automated booking system, but later, travel agents were given access. Around 1980, CRS enabled travel agents to connect to various travel providers in a single system. At this stage, in addition to flights, hotels and car rentals were included. CRS acquired much strength by late 80s being so helpful to both suppliers and distributors. In the 90s, computerized reservation systems of airlines were transformed to global distribution systems (GDS). So we see that GDS has developed from airline alliances and ended up becoming independent business units with product internationalization and introduction of new products, especially hotel rooms, which is why Amadeus and Galileo software are used for all the top travel agencies worldwide. GDS integration for travel agencies and suppliers of travel products Travel agencies must have full access to a global distribution system GDS. To get connected to a GDS, travel agencies need a contract. This will enable the travel agents to provide an astonishing amount of travel product rates and information to their customers, at the lowest possible rates. An experienced travel technology company can integrate any GDS to the computer reservation system or website of a travel agency. It’s critical also for the properties to be on a GDS. Travelers now go to travel portals to find travel products. So hotels, car rentals, etc, have to be there to get Internet visibility and, thus, more reservations. A GDS allows real-time access to inventory system of a hotel with the current prices, discounts, room types, facilities like Wi-Fi and different aspects of interest to the potential customer. Owners can hire a good travel technology company to get access to the GDS of their choice. A property can be connected only in one GDS provider. If the property owner wants to change the provider, he can cancel the existing provider and activate another with a switch letter. How much does it cost? To integrate GDS to your system, you’ll have to pay a one-time setup cost and pay a monthly charge of a minimum amount per reservation. Major GDS systems Amadeus was started in 1987 by Air France, Iberia, Lufthansa, and SAS in order to create a European GDS, by fusing their CRSs. In 1989, seven more airlines joined Amadeus and began to allow travel agents to book flights through neutral screens. It is now the largest leisure package distributor in the world. Through Amadeus GDS integration, a travel agent can offer travel products from 430 airlines in 195 countries, 32 car rental companies in 37,918 locations, 20 cruise lines and 300,000 hotel properties. More than 100,000 travel agencies are connected with Amadeus GDS. Sabre, a joint venture by American Airlines and IBM, was started in 1960. In 1970, Sabre system began to be installed in travel agencies. Now 55,000 travel agencies use Sabre GDS to book products from 400 airlines, 88,000 hotels, 24 car rental brands, and 13 cruise lines.
Galileo and Worldspan are the other two major GDSs. There are also third party consolidators like Sahara, Infini (Japan), Axess (Japan), Tapas (Korea), Fantasia (South Pacific), and Abacus (Asia/Pacific) that cater to particular regions or countries. The big consolidators also include such as Expedia, Orbitz (Merchant program registration needed), Hotels.com, Travelocity, AAA, Hotwire, Priceline and TravelWeb. The future of GDS As a tool of of content aggregation, GDS is here to stay and be more powerful. Novel technological solutions in middleware continue to appear. Global distribution systems have a long way to go. Now travel agencies have their own B2C & B2B travel portal, some even have a travel mobile app just for their customers. But still most of the travel agencies in developing countries have websites, which don’t possess ecommerce functionalities. They just gives you some information on who started the travel agency and when, little bit more about services and packages. But you can’t book a flight ticket or hotel room through it. And the travel agencies think they have a good “online presence”. Over the last decade, a lot have changed in the way, people used to search and book travels deals. There is a clear trend in OTA model and usage of travel technology solutions have gone higher. Travel technology companies are working hand in hand with travel agencies to make their processes online almost 100%. Starting from the consultation needed for IATA accreditation, to GDS and APIs access – travel technology companies are sharing their wealth of experience to make the process quicker. In general, if one is looking for travel technology solutions – its always better to find a professional travel technology company. They analyze each travel agent’s business environment. They do a thorough study of the travel products and services they want to market. Who are their suppliers and what is the nature of their customers? What are their short-term and long-term business ambitions? Travel technology companies help them in devising an effective online strategy taking into account all the above. They enhance their digital presence through Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. They develop travel portal using the best of travel technology and web services available. Setting up engines for booking flights, hotels, etc, as per the requirements. The suppliers are integrated. Then the content management is started. No travel agency can wish away the negative impacts if they just try to avoid adopting technology to improve its business. More and more people resort to online booking or booking through mobile apps. Agencies improve their office work by automating them. No travel agency can stand apart from this avalanche of travel technology. Regarding Author: Author is a senior business analyst and an expert in travel portal development and marketing strategy implementation. |
AuthorPROVAB TECHNOSOFT is an award winning travel technology company , delivering B2B / B2C travel software, travel CRM, accounting software, car rental software and mobility solutions to global travel & hospitality companies. ArchivesCategories
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