Virgin Holidays is urging industry companies to safeguard their future and work closely on the development of more effective electronic distribution of travel, following the tour operator’s decision to join TOWARD Europe. The operator will participate in TOWARD Europe’s Inventory and Content Management working group, alongside companies including Amadeus, Eurostar, Cendant and Worldspan. Virgin Holidays want to be involved in the formation of standards and systems to manage inventory, content and connectivity between different stages of the value chain. This is a key area since smoother integration inevitably produces fewer costs and greater margins for all concerned.

TOWARD Europe, which was set up to maximise the profitability of the travel industry, produces breakthrough papers advising on best practice and demonstrating case studies of members who have benefited from its groundbreaking findings.

Dave Niner, Virgin Holidays development manager said: “Virgin Holidays strives to sit at the forefront of industry initiatives and TOWARD Europe gives us an ideal opportunity to achieve this. By encouraging communication between key players across the industry, we expect to enjoy a win-win situation.

“Membership of TOWARD Europe will enable us to be involved in industry initiatives that are leading to standardisation and closer communication with our peers.”

Bill Barnes, TOWARD Europe management committee member and UK director of sales at Amadeus, added: “Virgin Holidays is one of the UK’s most successful tour operators. TOWARD Europe’s unrivalled roll call of members from across the entire travel sector means the organisation is strongly placed to identify the vital issues for our industry and to drive change.”
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