- By : Mr. Darshan Shah
- Date: 16-11-2013
- Views : 1843
- [Mayumba, Gabon]
Travelport is planning the beta launch of Travelport Marketplace, an online retail site designed for Travelport customers to browse, discover and access innovative products built both by Travelport and partner developers who are members of the Travelport Developer Network (TDN).
“The Marketplace is part of the ongoing evolution of the Travelport Developer Network and the commitment we have to the third party developer community,” said Chris Zando, vice president, Global Partnerships, Alliances & Regional Product Management.
Travelport Marketplace provides TDN members with a marketplace to promote and sell their products and services to 67,000 Travelport-connected agencies globally. A key component of Travelport’s Open Platform strategy, Travelport Marketplace is designed to help developers build innovative products that work in harmony with Travelport technologies and add value to Travelport-connected travel agencies.
In the future, agencies will find not only companion apps for the Company’s leading agency desktops: Travelport Smartpoint and Travelport Universal Desktop, but also a place to discover suitable partners for a broad range of agency IT tools designed to provide improved customer service and create new revenue streams – from internet booking engine providers to mobile app developers.
According to Phil Donathy, product director, Developer Tools, Travelport, “We want developers to know about Marketplace. We’re asking them to provide input and test-drive our platform. In line with our open ethos, we’re sharing a live working product so the developer community can help shape the direction in advance of a commercial launch to Travelport agency customers in 2014.”
“Travelport’s Marketplace is the ultimate distribution channel for the travel industry,” said Michael Somoza, CEO, GottaPark, Inc. “To be able to directly access all of Travelport partners with a single set of integrations is truly amazing. Becoming a member of the Travelport Developer Network has provided a large boost to our company. Not only have they enabled us to connect to their partners via software, but they have also opened countless doors for us through personal connections and introductions. We are proud to be allied with such a well-respected leader of the travel industry.”
In tandem with Marketplace, Travelport is also launching a Software Development Kit (SDK) for Travelport Smartpoint which will allow developers to build plug-ins that integrate with the desktop used by the majority of Travelport agencies. Donathy added, “Today we’re in alpha testing for the Travelport Smartpoint SDK with ten customers, four agencies, and six members of TDN.”
Tommi Holmgren, chief product officer of Cabforce, one of the earliest adopters of Smartpoint SDK says, “Travelport Smartpoint SDK and the Marketplace offer us an excellent opportunity to distribute our taxi and airport transfer content to travel agencies and to fuel our global growth. With our app, agencies can sell door-to-door trips to their passengers with just couple of clicks, making Smartpoint an extremely powerful point-of-sale that helps drive higher revenue per trip.”
“The SDK Console is amazing – such a huge bonus to have this,” according to developer Paul Toomey, Navitas Solutions. “I have been using it to test various aspects before committing them to my plug-ins. This is invaluable!”
According to Brian Cloud, chief technology officer, SwiftTrip, “We’ve worked with Travelport since 2002 using a variety of their technology solutions including Hotel Content Plus and Travelport Universal API™ and they have proven to be an invaluable partner. Recently we’ve been involved in the Beta trial of Universal API’s Flex Explore functionality and have built a mobile Inspirational Search application. The applications we create are bespoke to our clients’ needs. The flexibility of the Travelport technology and also the technical support we receive as part of our Developer Network membership enables us to create solutions we can deliver to our customers in a very short period of time.”