Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/114646
PEOPLE www.travelweeklyweb.com Chat with … Patrick Andres, vice-president and regional managing director, Asia-Pacific Travelport Prior to his current role, he was the Singapore-based Vice President of Asia-Pacific for Sabre Hospitality Solutions where he led the company's growth and presence in the region for six years. He has also worked in senior management positions with IATA, Expedia, Micros-Fidelio and SAP AG based in Canada and Asia. A seasoned industry expert, he has over 25 years of experience in the travel and hospitality industries, having spent 15 years working for global organisations based out of Hong Kong and Singapore. We speak with Patrick Andres, Travelport's vice-president and regional managing director for Asia-Pacific. How has the growth been in terms of new products rolled out by Travelport? I understand that the new Universal Application programming interfaces (API) connectivity tools to access, shop and book travel content from multiple sources has been very apt for the current "breed" of travel agents who are constantly on the go. How has the growth or acceptance level been for Travelport-connected users / travel agents? It's been good. We launched the Travelport Developer Network about a year ago, we've had 70 people sign up where they can build up a network. So we have people such as taxi hires services, content providers, mobile application developers etc. We launched at the ITB in October the Gallileo Terminal which allows agents to access their workspace from their tablet and we've had people develop other smart phones applications from there on. If I am a mid-sized travel agency, what would your advice be for me, or why should I choose Travelport? Firstly, I would dig deeper to find out what kind of travel the agency specialises on. Are you online? Do you specialise in corporate or leisure? I do not like to sort of "pigeon-hole" an agency. The whole pillars of what we do is in providing an empowered selling platform is about saying let us deliver something that meets your needs. What we do next is to provide you tools to help you achieve your objectives. In the old days, travel agencies processed bookings while GDSs processed transactions. Now agents have to sell and we are here to help you be efficient in selling. I think that we've built around our core GDS product, a tonne of flexibility on how we can help our subscriber. 10 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | MARCH 2013 Let's talk about the deregulation in China: I've heard from a few people that the deregulation in China may just be talks, and that eventually China remains a difficult market to penetrate through. What's your take on it? China is a challenging market but if you look at the country in general, over the last 25 years and you'll see that there's a clear willingness from the authorities to open up the market. It's unbelievable how quickly things have changed in China. Let's take a step back. China, I think today, is the third largest travel market in the world. By the end of this market, it will probably be the largest. So does Travelport believe we have a role to play in China? Absolutely. We do what we do exactly, out of China, to make the whole experience between the shoppers and sellers of travel more efficient. What we've seen from the CAAC in the last year or so is that they've announced steps in the direction, which is what you'd expect to see. We've embraced and we are committed to the market. Today, we have three offices in China, we work with many different participants in that market including Travelsky and we'll continue to do what do – to bring in innovative products, platforms, working with Chinese airlines and we think that we can help the market to do the same. What's your opinion of the new distribution capabilities: the argument is that GDSs are not flexible enough to support other services pertaining to the ancillary items offered by airlines. How nimble are GDSs these days? I think at Travelport, we are definitely evolving. At the same time, we're right in the middle of a very large infrastructure that's serving the industry. We continue to grow year over year. We power a big chunk of the travel transaction taking place but does that mean we should stay there? No. I think what we've done with the open systems, the Travelport developer network, the Travelport merchandising platform, the smartpoint, we are definitely legitimately going to the buyers and sellers of travel and ask, how can we add value? I read that Travelport has extended your partnership with IBM for 35 years. Now we know that IT solutions is integral, it's the heartbeat of GDSs. What can we expect from this renewed partnership? We've had the partnership for 35 years and we've extended it, the big view on that is simply that we run an extremely sophisticated data centre with massive amount of transactions. IBM has been a great partner in ensuring that we remain fast, that we do the searches efficiently, securely. They deliver on what we do as a core which is to provide a reliable technology. What are the threats and opportunities facing GDSs today? The opportunities are huge. Travel continues to grow particularly in this part of the world. What we are doing with our merchandising platform is really gamechanging. Visit our website for the full interview. www.travelweeklyweb.com