DESPITE recent political unrest Bahrain-based GDS provider Sabre Travel Network Middle East (STNME) has restated its commitment to expansion in the region and will soon market three new products which will plug into the Sabre Red system it launched last year.
CEO Daniel Naoumovitch said: “Our function here is to give travel agents the possibility to provide the best services – they save money by giving the best services and make money by being more efficient.”
The company, which is part of the global Sabre Travel Network, was established in Bahrain in January 2005 with 35 employees covering 11 countries, today today it has recorded double-digit growth for the last four years and that number has grown to close to 180 staff and 21 offices including nine in Saudi Arabia covering the Central, Eastern and Western provinces with further expansion planned.
“We started off with a very low market share but we quadrupled that – obviously you don’t just do that overnight, it’s a testament to the strategy and the infrastructure that we have put together to support that enormous market,” said Naoumovitch.
In Bahrain STNME is the largest global distribution service (GDS) and, having maintained that leading position since inception, it is now preparing to expand into the Levant.
Sabre will shortly open a second office in Egypt, alongside the existing Cairo branch it will launch in Alexandria where 40 local travel agents are already signed up to undertake the company’s in-house training on the system.
“That we have 40 agents ready to train in Alexandria shows that the country is recovering and the travel industry is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Naoumovitch.
The company is also due to open new offices in Kuwait and Qatar.
“We have had a very, very strong run in the last eight or nine months,” he added. “Again this doesn’t happen over night – a lot of things that have been in the pipeline are now coming through.
“In terms of business, it’s not sufficient to sign a contract, you have to deliver on it, migrating the business – giving customers, in our case the agents, the right tools and the right account management to ensure that their needs are looked after.
“It is about delivering on the commitment and maintaining the customer base which is a very important part of the loyalty base that Sabre has grown.”
Explaining one of the company’s unique selling points which has helped drive its success in the region, Naoumovitch added: “That’s one advantage that Sabre has in that it’s the biggest GDS worldwide – from a market share point of view we have been and continue to be number one.
“From a global perspective we have more and better tools to help our customers make and save money.
“What’s different with Sabre Middle East is that we don’t cut and paste our products, we don’t take it for granted that they will work in this region. We take the best tools that we have found true then tailor to fit the needs of the regional market.”
Which is backed up by Sabre’s partnerships with four of the Middle East’s leading travel agencies – Kanoo, Al Shamel, Dnata and Fursan.
Naoumovitch agreed that regional unrest has led to some falling off in business but added that Sabre has continued to grow its market share in spite of this and though rising oil prices are causing some concerns within the aviation industry he feels that passengers who need to get from A to B will continue to fly.
July last year saw the launch of Sabre Red, a total travel solution, which features a range of powerful capabilities spanning the entire spectrum of an agency’s business from shopping and booking travel, to serving customers throughout their trip and using business intelligence for insight and continuous improvement.
Naoumovitch said: “Sabre Red has been exceptionally well received and the big plus is that the idea for its creation came from this region and became a global initiative. We looked at the unique needs of the region and spent a lot of man hours to create something that’s very useful for the Middle East.”
And new products the company is preparing to launch will tie seamlessly into it.
These include: Automated QC and Ticketing – a robotic application that automates a high percentage of Passenger Name Records (PNR) quality control and ticketing functions. Agencies can configure more than 100 items at the Psuedo City Code (PCC) level for their own quality control and ticketing needs – SMS4Travel – which allows travel agencies to contact their customers via SMS letting them send itineraries, reminders about flights, hotels or rental cars and personalised promotional messages via SMS directly from the Sabre GDS – and a travel protection tool which is an easy way to sell trip cancellation, trip interruption and medical insurance to agents’ customers. Available via the Sabre Red Workspace this insurance booking tool provides instant access to top insurance providers. It will initially be released only in Oman.