Sabre unveils sneak peek of new, next-generation travel agency platform featuring powerful data insights and merchandising capabilities
New Sabre Red Workspace promises to transform the way consultants and suppliers work together to create personalised experiences for travellers
SINGAPORE, June 29, 2016 – Global travel technology leader Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR) has given travel consultants and suppliers across the airline, hotel, rail, cruise and car rental industries a sneak peek at its game-changing Sabre Red Workspace. The software solution will harness the changes in the industry and provide both retailers and suppliers with a content rich marketplace, intelligent decision support tools and predictive data insights that enable agents and suppliers to more easily create personalised experiences for travellers.
Developed on Sabre’s merchandising platform providing access to its award-winning GDS, travel consultants around the world will benefit from a more intuitive way to book travel, while airlines, hotels and other industry suppliers are now empowered to market their brands in the same way they market in other channels.
“Data, analytics, personalization and mobile have been trending in the marketplace for some time and offer exciting opportunities for buyers and suppliers to meet changing traveller needs,” said Sean Menke, president of Sabre Travel Network. “Travellers want more than an itinerary; they want to feel confident about their purchases and expect a trip built around choice. That’s why in addition to a superior user experience, our new Sabre Red Workspace provides travel consultants with data insights, relevant offers and price transparency. Data and analytics are critical assets to increase productivity and efficiency in the retail world, and our travel insight engine will help drive decision-making, revenue optimisation and true personalisation.”
Sabre will begin upgrading travel agency customers to the new solution in early 2017, after a pilot later this year.
“Asia Pacific’s travel market is expanding – fact. Rapid economic growth and rising expendable incomes across the region’s burgeoning middle classes keep driving up demand. But with this, traveller expectations are also on the rise. We’re a region that dominates the global mobile economy and easier access to extensive travel information online continues to drive a more informed, more demanding traveller,” commented Roshan Mendis, senior vice president of Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific. “Expectations for choice, flexibility, price and personalisation are at an all-time high. The release of the new Sabre Red Workspace will help travel retailers and suppliers respond directly to this new generation of traveller.”
Agents and suppliers who have been involved in the development of the innovative solution have helped drive the user interface of the new travel marketplace solution, combining the look and feel of a consumer-focused website with insights, tools and features that help drive more personalized offerings to sell travel more effectively.
“Sabre has always been very committed to bringing new technologies to market, but what’s so effective about their approach is the investment made to ensure these solutions are highly adaptive and relevant for all their customers, wherever we are in the world. We’re very excited to be part of the early testing and adoption for this new release of Sabre Red Workspace, which we predict will take travel shopping in Asia Pacific to the next level,” commented Thomas Chong, Managing Director and CEO of CWT/Holiday Tours Malaysia.
“Sabre is a global company with a very local approach. We’re delighted to be working closely with Sabre’s local APAC teams to bring the next generation of smart travel booking technology into play in this region,” added Ms. Lily Agonoy, Managing Director of BCD Travel Hong Kong”.
What’s New?
· The combination of data-driven booking trend information with intuitive design and a consumer-grade user interface, smart product differentiation for air extras and Branded Fares, and inspirational shopping are among the many new features enabling agents to deliver personalised experiences and invaluable consultancy to their customers.
· The new Sabre Red Workspace intelligent platform features innovative integration of Sabre Dev Studio APIs, to equip travel consultants with a unique Decision Support Bar providing market data and intelligence services for fare trend and range, travel seasonality and alternate airports. Just imagine if a travel consultant could advise on the best time to book to get the best price, predict the best days of travel, or even offer more options to choose from including alternate airports displayed in interactive maps. That’s travel consultancy at its best, with simplified comparison shopping to cleverly serve the specific needs of travellers.
· The user-friendly interface of the new end-to-end solution also integrates revenue maximisation tools, including unique indicators that alert the travel consultants about opportunities to increase sales and commissions while offering differentiated options that cater to the traveller’s preferences. The enhanced product information, especially for air extras and Branded Fares, simplifies the shopping experience and reduces training times for newly hired travel consultants.
“Aside from helping us enhance the travel services we offer to customers, we anticipate that the new Sabre Red Workspace will significantly increase efficiencies within our own business, via the platform’s enhanced user interface which accommodates either command language or graphical content depending on our agents’ preferences,” added Mr. Noor Mohammed, Director South of AEG Travel Services, one of Pakistan’s’ leading Travel Management Companies.
Value for Suppliers
The new Sabre Red Workspace is also an enhanced platform for suppliers. The Sabre platform features advanced merchandising capabilities with enhanced product information through images, video and more, enabling airlines, hotels and other travel providers to leverage the Sabre travel marketplace for an omni-channel marketing strategy. The graphically-rich workflow supports ancillary and branded fares sales, and enhanced hotel capabilities.
“Sabre Red Workspace was designed with both supplier and agent needs in mind. Suppliers can count on improved consistency across channels while agents can work wherever and however they want, moving seamlessly between command and graphical interfaces,” said Menke.
The new Sabre Red Workspace will provide a consistent user experience across multiple operating systems and devices, including desktop, Sabre Red Mobile for consultants while on-the-go, and Sabre Web Services powering the world’s leading online travel agencies. The new merchandising platform is an upgrade that proves continuous innovation to provide stability, speed and performance in travel commerce transactions.
Please visit the following link for a video on how Sabre Red Workspace helps create experiences, not itineraries:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OycpdCOnoRc&feature=youtu.be
For the LATEST tech updates,
FOLLOW us on our Twitter
LIKE us on our FaceBook
SUBSCRIBE to us on our YouTube Channel!
