Sabre New Distribution Partnership with Carnival
Sabre Holdings Corporation today announced a new agreement with Carnival Corporation & plc to expand its cruise distribution partnership across all of Carnival Corporation’s cruise line brands in North America and internationally. Through this new agreement travel products from all Carnival Corporation cruise line brands will become available through all Sabre Holdings businesses.The new agreement ensures that all Carnival Corporation cruise line brands will now become available to all Sabre Holdings business units, including Sabre Travel Network and Travelocity, with full access to content, pricing and booking functionality.
“We believe that working with Sabre Holdings to achieve expanded electronic distribution for all of our brands, as well as improve the content and functionality of the booking tool, will help us enhance our revenues and reinforce our leadership position,” said Jack Anderson, Vice President of Marketing for Carnival Corporation. “We are very excited about Sabre Holding’s commitment to expand and improve electronic booking capabilities for our professional travel agency distribution system. This initiative will also help agents achieve greater efficiency and productivity via Sabre’s automated booking tools.”
Carnival Corporation & plc, a global cruise company, is one of the largest vacation companies in the world. Current cruise brands include Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises, The Yachts of Seabourn, Cunard Line and Costa Cruises; P & O Cruises, Ocean Village and Swan Hellenic in the United Kingdom; AIDA in Germany; and P & O Cruises in Australia. Coupled with its tour operations, Carnival’s brands attract five million guests annually.
“This partnership offers opportunities for both Carnival Corporation and Sabre Holdings to capitalize on the significant growth anticipated in the cruise market,” said Eric Speck, chief marketing officer for Sabre Holdings. “It enables all Carnival brands to expand their reach to travel agents, corporations and travelers. And it allows us to provide our customers full access to content from the World’s Leading Cruise Lines alliance, in addition to improved connectivity and functionality for booking cruises.”
Currently, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises and Carnival Cruise Lines brands are distributed through the Sabre system and Travelocity. Sabre Holdings and Carnival Corporation are working closely to add new cruise brands - Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises, Ocean Village, Swan Hellenic and AIDA - to Sabre Holdings’ electronic booking channels, as well as enhance their booking tools with additional functionality made available through the Carnival XML API. Implementation will take place in a phased approach with the first phase beginning immediately in North America, then followed in international markets.
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