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TECHNOLOGY www.travelweeklyweb.com Amadeus to bring cruise solutions to Asia Pacific Focus markets to include Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China By Robert Chamberlin, Head of Cruise & Ferry Business Units, Amadeus IT Group It is a good year to be in the cruise industry, especially if you have your sights set on Asia Pacific. As the region enjoys growing mass affluence, travellers are beginning to shift their gaze from traditional land vacations to the seas. According to Cruise Lines International Association, Asian passengers accounted for just 1.3 million of the estimated 16.4 million passengers who travelled in 2012, but by the end of the decade, one in every five cruisers will be from Asia Pacific. Amadeus has a long and successful legacy in cruise distribution, especially in the key cruise markets of North America and Europe. First launched in the late 1990s, Amadeus Cruise has been a leading platform for travel agencies to search and book renowned cruise lines including Costa, Carnival Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International, Star Cruises and Princess Cruises – creating a more complete and enjoyable cruise shopping experience for cruisers. The Amadeus Cruise booking solution is today deployed in more than 35 countries, and offers travel agencies instant availability and multiple, detailed cruise line offerings on a browser-based, point-and-click application. Over 95% of the world's cruise inventory is available via Amadeus, offering Amadeus Cruise subscribers access to an unparalleled range of cruise content to meet their customers' needs. Amadeus Cruise serves as either a standalone product (for agencies that do not have the Amadeus system) or integrated with the Amadeus Selling Platform. This means that Amadeus Cruise can be made immediately available to any travel agency anywhere in the world. For those travel agencies managing their own cruise application, Amadeus offers a web services solution providing access to the same cruise lines. In 2014, we plan to bring our cruise solutions to Asia Pacific. We are customizing our solutions by working closely with various travel agency customers across Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China to better understand their Amadeus Cruise Classic unique needs and business requirements. We believe we can leverage our existing cruise expertise to further boost this already growing industry, but recognise that a one-sizefits-all approach does not work. We are also working closely with our existing cruise line partners to extend our existing North America and European partnerships into Asia Pacific. We think of it as a win-win; for cruise lines, Amadeus Cruise can help raise travel agency and consumer awareness for cruise offers. At the same time, Amadeus' cruise distribution solutions ease the heavy burden for cruise lines with in-house reservation departments handling telephone-based reservations. Designed to reflect their specific needs, Amadeus Cruise helps cruise lines reduce costs, improve distribution efficiencies while allowing them to focus on their core business. We look forward to launching our web-based cruise solution that will provide travel agencies with secure online access to a huge range of cruise options, anytime and anywhere. We believe that our customers can look forward to spending less time on hold and more time providing their clients with services that really add value to their businesses. The Indi spensable stry Rea TravelWeekly Asia – a cut above the rest and always close to you Bringing readers vital news, features, interviews and special reports every month, TravelWeekly Asia continues to inform and enlighten, placing you right in the middle of emerging trends and developments. For advertising information, please contact Kevin Ng • (65) 6521 9742 • kevin.ng@contineomedia.com 6 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | JANUARY 2014 Travel Indu d Feature Highlig ht Luxe defi finition finition Vol. 4 Issue 05 | May 2013 | www.trav elwe ekly web. com | Published by Trav el & Mee tings Group, Cont ineo Business $158 m budget illion tourism to boost in New Zealand New Zeala nd's Prime Minis Media S RWM to host US$7 Asian Title 50,0 00 Airlines Page 14 ter John AUCKLA Key anno uncing his ND – A plans for tourism budget the NZ$ sector, of NZ$ 158 millio 158 millio to boos next four n budget n has been years. New t New Zealand's to boos injected his plans t tourism Chapman travel indu Zealand's to the yesterday Freeborn stry profi Prime private net wort , Singapore takes le for luxury h travellers, focusing on direc Minister John down , being Key anno the in visito under ting initia a mature into the Out of r arrivals, Page 16 unced tives to country. the $158 in the mon market, has seen However draw the $44.5 millio million , Kevin that has th of Febr high a fall of n will be Bow highlighte been budg and India 6.2 per put aside d that the ler, chief exec uary, comparin cent eted , $24.5 for eme g year-on-y million Asian mark utive of business board is rging mark towards the will go Tourism trade, ear. events, still purs ets like ets such to exist New Zeal towards $20m for Singapore uing the domestic as Indo scenic drive pote , parti nesia and initiatives very high ing markets, $34 milli the com s, the outd cularly in prod ntials of Southeas and $7 value visito "Ov er ing year on for million ucts that the past oors and t rs, $28 s, effor for smoo in Chri but spen are cent nature. million ts will be thing imm d per visito deca de, visit or red Bowler for grow stchurch, Wel put into igration. added New Zeal num bers lington r has fallen building th in corp and Auck and, we have been conventio that in orate trave . 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"We and's fanta high end, develope with premium e ium h end, events, bitions. will attra tly expa tour tou m d to it stic high to its fu including Conferen valuable nd our full potent urism operat opera ull pote ctions," p ator end acco conferen o ntial ce focus as they said Bow s tial leve mmod modatio ces, conv leveraging ors e spend $318 and conventio for the ler. TRE NZ i n, trans entions n visito New aver per day is New port prov rs are showcase announce age tourist," on aver particular iders and said the s the key Zeal and' s prem age, com ment at ly prov prime mini TRENZ pared to tourism ier tour iders and 2013 operator ism trad $208 ster du the i our or y pf ign u Pte Ltd Rri ti FbscEpEon Su y! toda www.travelweeklyweb.com/subs www.travelweeklyweb.com

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