Unique forward-looking market insights showcase Phuket as travelers’ favorites. As we head towards the festive season, hoteliers are preparing for demand as people look to travel over Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Global technology provider Amadeus, with its unique forward-looking business intelligence data, is seeing a peak in demand over the Christmas and New Year period across major markets around the world. Amadeus’ Demand360®+  data as of November 27, 2023, shows that global hotel occupancy for the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s is already at 23%. This is up 10 % from the same time last year. Globally, occupancy levels this festive season are trending ahead of 2022, reflecting a return of confidence in travel and a desire for warmer climates in some of the leading destinations. According to hotel occupancy, the top destinations globally are: Los Cabos, Mexico 77% Cape Town, South Africa 71% Phuket, Thailand 69% Cancun, Mexico 69% Honolulu, Hawaii 64% Tokyo, Japan 61% Maldives 59% Sydney, Australia 58% Taipei, Taiwan 58% Kahului, Hawaii 57% The top destinations in APAC are: Phuket 69% Tokyo 61% Maldives 59% Sydney 58% Bali 51% Bangkok 51% Osaka 50% Melbourne 47% Mumbai 44% Singapore 42% Sydney has seen an increase of 29% on 2022, as it sits higher in the list for this year, Osaka has also seen an increase in demand, up 16% over 2022. This festive season it seems that travelers are prioritizing sun, nature, gastronomy, and culture, contributing to high occupancy levels across APAC and LATAM. Compared to last year, APAC is trending 8% higher, EMEA 7%, LATAM 4% and NORAM is on par with 2022. Los Cabos, the top market, has seen a 16% increase in bookings since 2022. The data also reveals travelers are still booking accommodation close to their intended travel dates. Booking lead times remain short as 56% of travelers worldwide are making hotel reservations within a week of their trip, up 4% on 2022. This presents hoteliers with an opportunity to make the most of last-minute demand. “Christmas and New Year’s is undoubtedly a busy time for hoteliers. We are clearly seeing increased popularity in the APAC and LATAM regions as travelers look to book getaways. Having access to comprehensive forward-looking business intelligence data is important, because it allows hoteliers to identify booking patterns and revenue opportunities so they can still drive last minute demand, while ensuring their property is staffed and ready to provide a great guest experience,” says Edward Wright, Regional Vice President, Hospitality, Asia Pacific, Amadeus. The data is based on insight from Amadeus’ Demand360+ business intelligence as of the 27th of November for the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, 24th December 2023 -6th January 2024.

The post Amadeus reveals Thailand top hotel destination for festivities travel appeared first on Asian Itinerary.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is taking a significant step through an extended partnership with Amadeus. The renewed deal will continue to see the Amadeus Altéa Passenger Service System (PSS) support all ANA international flights across reservation, inventory, ticketing, and departure control. In addition, ANA will also be implementing new digital, pricing and payment capabilities.  This partnership will bring flexibility and personalisation capabilities to the airline, allowing it to provide a seamless experience for its customers. As a significant extension of the partnership, all ANA domestic flights will also be migrating onto Altéa, including the domestic airlines currently hosted on ANA’s in-house PSS system. Amadeus’ technology will bring ANA and these airlines onto a single platform, enabling the airline to decommission its in-house PSS system by 2026. With the Altéa Passenger Service System being the key touchpoint for ANA’s domestic and international flights operations, ANA will be able to optimize its existing and future operations, allowing the airline to achieve a higher level of customer experience management, and embrace the next phase of travel demand. “For the past 34 years, we have had separate passenger systems for international and domestic flights. We’ve already seen the benefits of Amadeus Altéa PSS with our international business, and we’re excited to bring our domestic flight operations onto the Amadeus system. This one, integrated platform will deliver benefits to ANA and our passengers. For example, together with the new solutions we’re adding in, we have a new infrastructure for selling. This agreement is a step-change for us in our digital transformation journey to further improve our operational efficiency. We are confident the strengthened partnership with Amadeus will improve our customers’ experience” says Sammy Aramaki, Chief Innovation Officer, ANA. “ANA and Amadeus have a long-standing relationship and we are excited to further strengthen and expand our partnership. We believe this agreement is a further step towards modern airline retailing and an example of the collaborative approach we at Amadeus take with our customers. ANA is renowned globally for its attention to detail and quality, and it is a privilege for us to collaborate with the airline to create memorable travel experiences for its passengers” says Javier Laforgue, Executive Vice President, Travel Unit & Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Amadeus. As a part of the wider Altéa global community, ANA will be able to offer passengers an improved customer experience. Travelers will be able to enjoy a more flexible and personalized experience from booking to boarding. Tangible benefits include faster check-in and the consistent and automated application of their preferences at every touch point during their journey. 

The post All Nippon Airways partnership with Amadeus appeared first on Asian Itinerary.

Malaysia Airlines is pleased to expand its partnership with Amadeus to improve the experience of its customers, including corporate and travel retailers over the coming years. The multi-year deal will see Malaysia’s national airline adopting Altéa NDC, Reference Experience, Dynamic Intelligence Hub and renewing its Amadeus Altéa Passenger Service System contract. In addition, the airline has also renewed and expanded its multi-year air content distribution partnership. With the seamless integration of Altéa NDC with the Amadeus Travel Platform, travel retailers will soon be able to access Malaysia Airlines’ full range of NDC-enabled content with full servicing functionalities. New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a travel industry-supported program by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) aimed at modernizing the way air products are retailed to travel agents, corporations and travelers. Group Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia Airlines, Izham Ismail commented, “Malaysia Airlines has taken a step in the right direction in adopting NDC, as modernizing airline retail is essential for the entire business travel community. We are pleased to take our partnership further after having an incredible journey with Amadeus, supporting our transformation goals which is an important part of our long-term business plan. We are confident that with new technology solutions from Amadeus beyond the Passenger Service System, we can offer relevant and richer shopping experiences by allowing customers to personalize their travels to an unprecedented level, ultimately realizing our aspirations of becoming Asia’s Leading Travel and Aviation Services Group.”Glen Oliveiro, Senior Vice President, Greater China & Southeast Asia, Amadeus says: “We are excited that Malaysia Airlines is using Amadeus’ technology to support its digital transformation. Open source, cloud-based systems, and next-generation retailing capabilities will be the engine powering recovery, and we are at the forefront of these technologies in the travel industry. We are very excited to collaborate with Malaysia Airlines in creating smoother travel journeys for its customers thanks to innovative technology.” 

The post Malaysia Airlines expands technology with Amadeus appeared first on Asian Itinerary.

Newly established and headquartered in Hong Kong, Greater Bay Airlines is taking the next step in its growth strategy after obtaining its AOC (Air Operator’s Certificate) on 8th October, 2021. The carrier has signed an agreement with Amadeus to make its schedules and fares available to travel agencies worldwide via the Amadeus Travel Platform in the first quarter of 2022. Flights will commence in the same quarter, subject to regulatory approvals. Amadeus-connected travel sellers — including travel management companies, corporations, tour operators, retail travel agencies, online travel agencies, and metasearch — will be able to easily search, book and service reservations on Greater Bay Airlines. Through the Amadeus Travel Platform, they will gain access to the airline’s flight schedules, load changes, seat maps, ancillary services and fare families as well as real-time flight updates. These options will empower travel sellers to tailor offerings to their customers’ specific requirements, generating more value for both customer and airline. Algernon Yau, Chief Executive Officer, Greater Bay Airlines, says “We are pleased to appoint Amadeus as one of our service providers for Global Distribution System. Amadeus could support our rapid implementation requirements and the growth of our airline.” Frederic Saunier, Regional Vice President, Airline Distribution Sales, Asia Pacific, Amadeus, says, “We are excited that Greater Bay Airlines will be utilizing Amadeus’ technology as it embarks on its new journey when it begins flights end of this year. We are very pleased that Greater Bay Airlines has selected Amadeus as its distribution partner, and we look forward to supporting its growth as travel rebuilds.” Greater Bay Airlines has applied for the rights to operate in 104 destinations across the region, including Chinese Mainland, North and Southeast Asia. The carrier has already leased three Boeing 737-800 aircraft and plans to grow its fleet to 30 aircraft over the next five years.

The post Greater Bay Airlines expands in Asia with Amadeus appeared first on Asian Itinerary.

Amadeus partnered with Microsoft earlier this year for a ‘once-in-a-generation’ transformation of its systems, which currently support hundreds of airlines, airports, hotels, and rail providers, as well as many thousands of travel sellers. The strategic partnership includes joint innovation and product development to envision, design and deliver cutting-edge travel solutions. And now insights about the transformation and a glimpse into some of the projects underway are covered in detail in a newly published report, ‘Journey to Cloud Planet’. The report looks at the benefits of cloud capabilities for the travel industry and the technology transformation which will see more than 400 high performance applications transitioning to Microsoft Azure. Supported by interviews with dozens of experts, the report includes compelling insights from Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure and Corey Sanders, Microsoft’s Corporate VP, Microsoft Cloud for Industry and Global Expansion. It also details a first for the travel industry with the development of the Amadeus Data Mesh, the next evolution of a data lake, which joins up travel data in an open, shareable, and transparent manner to help fuel data science and train advance machine learning algorithms. Christophe Bousquet, CTO, Amadeus said, “This report clearly lays out our vision to transform travel technology with Microsoft and I am confident it will inspire and create optimism in the industry as we continue down the path of recovery. The move to Microsoft Azure is the greatest technology transformation in Amadeus’ 30-year history and it marks the dawn of a new era. Travel data will be openly accessible, within a defined governance framework. The pace of innovation will drastically increase. Our customers can build the cross-industry traveler experiences we know are essential to increasing the overall value of travel.” Additionally, the report offers a glimpse into the innovation projects currently being co-developed by Amadeus and Microsoft. These include the Traveler Centric Platform and other key areas such as travel search, and business travel. Corey Sanders, Corporate VP, Microsoft Cloud for Industry and Global Expansion said, “Being able to create a traveler experience that is much more hassle free is exciting, particularly when it comes to helping create a smoother journey for travelers. I think Amadeus and Microsoft can create solutions that will add more value services, reduce cost, and support the needs of travelers. Bringing data together and driving an AI solution on top of it will help not only Amadeus but also its partners to leverage better data-driven outcomes.”

The post Microsoft Azure cloud vision to transform travel appeared first on Asian Itinerary.