Northstar

NEWS www.travelweeklyweb.com Travelport showcases groundbreaking technologies SINGAPORE – As part of its Asia- wide industry road shows entitled "Creating a more profitable travel agency business", Travelport recently introduced the newly launched Travelport Universal Desktop, with features such as the Galileo Flexi Shopper, Gallileo Desktop with Smartpoint App, Galileo Room Master, Travelport e-Pricing, Travelport Rooms and More , Travelport Journey Reporter and the Travelport ViewTrip Mobile, which will be available next month. With advanced features aimed at increasing the productivity of workflow for travel agents, the Travelport ViewTrip Mobile for example, allows agents to communicate with their customers so easily, via an application download, suitable for the iPad, iPhone and all Android phone users. Trip information, itineraries, flight details, location guides, currency converters are available at a push of a button. The Travelport Journey Reporter offers agencies immediate access to deliver fast, urgent news to their customers such as in the case of a sudden political unrest or an unexpected agoda.com partners Jeju Air Asia's leading hotel booking site agoda.com has announced its partnership with South Korea's largest low cost carrier, Jeju Air. This means that customers can now enjoy up to 75 per cent discount at agoda.com hotels worldwide by booking through www.agoda.com/jejuairen. agoda.com lists more than 800 properties across South Korea, including top vacation spots on Jeju Island, with more than 34,000 hotel reviews of the region available to help travellers decide which property best suits them. "We are pleased to be able to provide our unmatched regional hotel inventory to Jeju Air customers and to work closely with them to make travel between Korea and the rest of Asia more accessible and affordable," commented Robert Rosenstein, president, agoda.com. Based out of Jeju Island, the airline serves hubs in Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and China, offering convenient and affordable flights to travellers headed to several destinations throughout South Korea. Jeju Air's Commercial Division / chief operating officer BooYoung Um said: "We are happy to reduce the cost of travel to South Korea by providing not only reasonably- priced airline reservation services to our customers, but also providing affordable hotel reservation services through this partnership Jeju Air with agoda.com. Furthermore, since both our companies provide an online service, we hope to be able to collaborate even more in the future." High-end experience in high demand despite rising room rates According to the latest Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI), room rates in Singapore's five-star hotels are the second most expensive worldwide with London taking fi rst place. The HPI is a regular survey of hotel prices in major destinations across the world. It is based on bookings made on Hotels.com and prices shown are those actually paid by customers (rather than advertised rates) in 2011. The HPI Singapore version shows hotel prices across the world per room per night as paid by Singaporean travellers in Singapore Dollars, comparing prices paid in 2011 with 2010. 8 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | 15 MAY 2012 Even as global hotel prices continue to rise in light of the healing economy, luxury and the finer experience still remain at the top of mind for many discerning travellers – a demand that is clearly refl ected in the proliferation of luxurious boutique hotel development in Singapore. "With more and more intra-Asia travellers coming to the fore, we think demand to popular places like Singapore will stay strong," said Johan Svanstrom, vice-president and managing director, Asia Pacifi c, Hotels.com. Visit www.travelweeklyweb.com to discover some of these up and coming hotels in Singapore. Destination London Singapore Dubai Hong Kong Munich Bali Taipei Sydney Seoul Amsterdam 537 494 424 408 404 372 368 359 357 348 Top 10 most expensive cities for fi ve-star hotels in SGD. www.travelweeklyweb.com occurrence of natural distasters and to suggest alternative travel arrangements. Held at the Mandarin Hotel, A screen grab of Travelport's Viewtrip Mobile interface travel agents received f irsthand experience f rom the expert s discussing key agenc y topics including mobile solutions, increasing productivity and exploring new revenue opportunities. There were also stations which demonstrated transactions, processes and uses of the new technologies, giving the agents a real feel on how to maximise their bookings, streamline fare searches and get in tune with the latest trends in travel, the impact of these trends on the industry and how agents can future proof their business in a time of fast change.

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