Amadeus is launching a new generation, multi-channel solution for the distribution of leisure travel content. Amadeus developed the solution with Area Travel Agency and Finland Travel Bureau, two of Finland’s three largest travel agencies. The two agencies, which will also be the solution’s first customers, are both owned by the Finnair Group. Amadeus is currently in talks about this solution with other potential customers around the world.

Area and FTB currently focus mainly on business travel but with leisure travel set to be one of the key growth areas in the travel industry, both agencies needed a solution that could move them towards a merchant model. The Amadeus solution will support their focus on selling leisure content and drive revenues by helping agents sell the highest margin package which fits the customer’s needs. The Finnair Group and Amadeus have been working in tight partnership and put in place a joint vision for the development of a long term solution.

The solution provides large travel agencies with a single search and display interface for all leisure content including multiple tour operator packages, hotels, scheduled carriers, as well as local or private inventory. The content is the same for travel agents, call centres and online channels - ensuring a consistent offer across all channels. The solution draws content from a range of sources and integrates it into dynamic packages and virtual packages, which are governed by business rules, giving the travel agency more control. Merchant capabilities allow the travel agents to add an additional mark-up on each travel component thus improving revenue management. The Amadeus team of consultants ensures that this solution is adapted to the specific needs of each indivivual customer.

“This solution will help us stay at the cutting edge of the online market as well as strengthen our branch office strategy. This will also strongly support our own production by providing a common and integrated inventory and packaging tool. This multi-channel distribution model will enable us to effectively and flexibly aggregate different sources in order to produce easily comparable holiday offers. This will give our agents the ability to serve the customer better by finding them the right holiday for their needs, quickly and easily,” says Mr Jukka Näräkkä, Managing Director of FTB.

Mr Juhani Suomela, Managing Director of Area is enthusiastic about the growth prospects offered by this new solution, “This new leisure travel solution which is fully integrated with other Amadeus products will help us to increase our profitability considerably. This outstanding technology, with its dynamic pricing model and dynamic inventory which together ensures the best price with availability for a given time, takes us to a new era of producing package holidays. Indeed we expect to achieve an as-yet unseen growth in online leisure sales in 2007.”

“The multi-channel solution we built together with Area and FTB demonstrates our ability to offer custom solutions for Leisure Travel Agencies that will help them gain market share,” notes Claude Giafferri, VP - Managing Director of TOPS (Travel Office Products & Solutions), Amadeus. “Amadeus is committed to help travel agents become content producers as well as efficient retailers for leisure. This solution is another step in the development of Amadeus as an IT business as we are now in a position to provide custom and packaged IT solutions to a wide variety of leisure businesses in multiple markets.”
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