UAE, 4th July, 2016: Travelport, a leading Travel Commerce Platform, has hosted a congregation of Abu Dhabi’s leading travel agencies at a series of innovation workshops at the Travelport office in Beirut, Lebanon last month. Among the attendees were representatives from well-known travel agencies such as Asian Gulf Travel, Shams Abu Dhabi Travel, Al Badie Travel Agency, Al Dana Travel, Liberty Travel, Smart Travel and Latakia Travel. The workshop provided the platform for the agents to learn about leveraging the most innovative technology that is redefining travel commerce around the globe and how this technology can utilized to meet traveller demands and grow the UAE’s travel industry.

Travelport is a key technology partner for the Abu Dhabi agents who were in attendance, all of whom have recently signed long term agreements with Travelport. The three-day workshop was an interactive gathering where Travelport’s product experts showcased technologies such as Travelport Smartpoint, the industry leading desktop solution, which can truly transform the way agents work; maximizing revenues, increasing productivity and improving the customer experience. They allow travel agencies to sell more airline content more often, allowing agents to keep up-to-date with the widest range of real-time content from over 400 of the world's leading network airlines and low cost carriers, all from within their workflow. They can also upsell more hotel rooms and car rentals. There are more than 650,000 unique hotel properties and 36,000 car rental locations available from within Travelport Smartpoint, which essentially means that travel agents can be confident and efficient in offering the right choices for their customers' unique needs.

Matthew Powell, Regional Director, Middle East and South Asia, commented; “In order for traditional travel agents to remain competitive they need to be ‘consultants’ rather than merely trip bookers and our Travel Commerce Platform creates synergies and network effects that facilitate revenue growth across the travel value chain. This series of workshops provided the platform for some of the UAE’s travel leaders to glean a complete understanding of how Travelport technology continues to lead the industry in redefining travel commerce so we can continue to partner with them to reach our mutual goal of growing the UAE’s travel industry.”

Mr. Mohamed Ashraf from Asian Gulf Travel commented; ‘‘The UAE’s travel industry is constantly evolving and embracing new trends and the technologies that support its progress and growth. As a travel industry leader in the UAE, we see it as best business practice to embrace the most cutting edge tools and technology available to improve efficiency and business function. Investing in technology is an instrumental component of a thriving agency. As long term partners of Travelport, we were delighted to participate in this event.”