£1.5m content management deal for groundbreaking Italian e-travel portal Anite Travel Systems, the travel industry`s leading e-commerce pioneer has signed a deal with new Italian travel venture Viaggiare Navigando to develop Italy`s first fully interactive travel portal.
Under the £1.5million deal, Anite will provide a content management solution and e-commerce functionality for the portal. Live bookings will be made into ATOP, the leading tour operator reservation system, through a gateway developed by Opentur, Anite`s Italian subsidiary in Milan.
Viaggiare Navigando, jointly owned by leading Italian travel agency Franco Rosso Italia and TAD FIN Industries, will operate the revolutionary new portal of the same name www.viaggiarenavigando.it. The portal will use software developed by Viaggiare Navigando alongside the latest content management system from Anite to create full online reservations from the complete network of tour operators in Italy.
The portal breaks new ground in internet travel retailing, allowing an unprecedented degree of interaction between tour operators and customer. Operators will be able to upload brochures in industry-standard Quark XPress format and see them instantly converted into online brochure pages featuring click-through access to the portal`s reservations engine. A dynamic link will allow Anite`s content management system to feed up-to-the-minute availability data back into the online brochure.
Commented Paolo Rosso, vice president and managing director of Viaggiare Navaigando: “It`s a massive breakthrough. The combination of our software with Anite`s content management system is unbeatable. It means a totally seamless searching and booking experience for the customer.”
Currently in its development stage, the company is already preparing an aggressive growth strategy with its sights set on the pan-European market. Viaggiare Navigando will be also the name of an Italian chain of 130 high street agents across northern and central Italy to boost brand recognition and drive traffic to the portal.
The deal is the latest phase in Anite`s European expansion strategy following their acquisition of Italian e-commerce provider Opentur last year, furthers the company`s goal of becoming the leading e-commerce provider across the entire European travel industry.
Howard Frost, Anite`s director of marketing commented: “The new company brings together key players in the British and Italian markets to create what will be a powerful force in travel retailing. Anite was chosen to provide an e-commerce solution for Viaggiare Navigando because of our unrivalled track record in e-commerce enablement and our position in the Italian tour operator market with Opentur. We are perfectly placed to provide gateway connectivity to a market with a growing need of an improved distribution network.
“This agreement confirms Anite`s position right at the heart of the European travel industry as the leading force in enabling package operators and other industry providers to sell online,” he said.
Anite Travel Systems is the travel industry`s leading e-commerce pioneer, delivering web-enabled reservations systems to ferry operators, cruise lines and tour operators. Anite is also the only company capable of web-enabling any third-party reservation system and has more customers live and selling on the web than any other organisation.
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