ATLANTA and ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 24,
2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Travelport (NYSE: TVPT), a leading
travel commerce platform today announced it is expanding its
longstanding partnership with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to further develop
innovations designed to disrupt the travel industry. Travelport has
completed a proof of concept to streamline the validation,
distribution and settlement of hotel content between its own
platform, travel agencies and hotels, through IBM Blockchain.
Separately, Travelport is turning to the IBM Watson Data Platform
to personalize customer experiences with new tools and traveller
recommendations.
In the first of two programs, Travelport is moving into the next
phase of development using IBM Blockchain to streamline the hotel
and in-trip experience ecosystem. Providing choices through
content, seamless booking and fulfilment experience is crucial to
traveller satisfaction. In recent years, travelers' interest
in unique experiences, as they look for content to share on social
media platforms, has grown. Through blockchain, travellers,
experience providers and hotels can see notable benefits around the
management and increased availability of so called 'long tail
content'.
Travel agencies, whether brick-and-mortar, online or corporate
travel managers, have faced many challenges with 'long tail
content' due to the diverse nature of travel services and products,
the large number of travel suppliers and their limited technical
capabilities. Processing settlements across a diverse range of
suppliers can be complicated and the entire process to reach a
completed transaction often takes time. Consequently, agencies are
often unable to sell the content due to issues in traveller
experience and the cost of processing. Likewise, those
content suppliers are frustrated with limited capability in
providing offers and experiences to travellers before they arrive
at the hotel.
Together, Travelport and IBM determined that by using
blockchain, content could be managed to provide travel agencies
confidence in the travel experience and ease of sale, while also
enabling long-tail content suppliers to participate
efficiently.
"One challenge facing our industry in the new digital world is
that onboarding content from smaller suppliers can be costly and
take time. We know unique experiences are what modern travelers are
looking for. Using blockchain to access these experiences is a
value-adding deployment of this new technology. With IBM, we're
removing barriers that limit travel choice. We're putting the
ability into the hands of the operator to upload bookings and work
through contracts and administrative tasks within the blockchain
network rather than manually managing and owning these tasks, which
is normally the expensive part of transactions," said Mike Croucher, Travelport's Chief Architect.
"The benefit of blockchain in travel is that it provides the
ability to put a smart contract across a distributed ledger. By
implementing a smart contract, settling payments within the network
and so forth, the technology significantly lowers the processing
time, because it manages diverse ledgers across multiple companies
in a way that takes manual processing and other processing out. The
other benefit here is that you are also adding transparency to the
system across all parties in the travel network," said Elizabeth Pollock, Industry Client Leader IBM
Travel & Transportation.
In a second initiative, Travelport and IBM are working together
to generate enhanced travel experiences by leveraging Travelport's
vast travel data. By applying IBM's Watson Analytics Studio,
Travelport will develop new services, such as highlighting the best
time to buy or providing personalized offer recommendations based
on previously combined travel data. These will enable travel
agency subscribers to bring more value to the travellers they
serve, while making it easier to access the vast range of travel
supplier content Travelport offers.
These initiatives are just two of many partnerships between
Travelport and IBM. The two companies regularly push the boundaries
to understand how new technologies can truly add value for each
part of the travel industry and, most importantly, tomorrow's
travellers.
About IBM
For more information about IBM Services
visit https://www.ibm.com/services
About Travelport (www.travelport.com)
Travelport (NYSE: TVPT) is the technology company which makes the
experience of buying and managing travel continually better.
It operates a travel commerce platform providing distribution,
technology, payment and other solutions for the global travel and
tourism industry. The company facilitates travel commerce by
connecting the world's leading travel providers with online and
offline travel buyers in a proprietary business-to-business (B2B)
travel marketplace.
Travelport has a leadership position in airline merchandising,
hotel content and distribution, car rental, mobile commerce and B2B
payment solutions. The company also provides critical IT
services to airlines, such as shopping, ticketing, departure
control and other solutions. With net revenue of over
$2.4 billion in 2017, Travelport is
headquartered in Langley, UK, has approximately 4,000 staff and is
represented in 180 countries and territories.
Travelport Media Contacts:
Anna Davies
Head of Global Communications
t +44 7787 501908
anna.davies@travelport.com
IBM Media Contacts:
Ken
Saunders
External Relations
t: +447887830036
saundken@uk.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM