The Travelport Digital team in Dublin of Steven Ratcliffe, Vice President Product; Neil Gleeson, Director Customer Advocacy; Conor Cunningham, Senior Product Manager; and Cormac Reilly, Chief Customer Officer (above), recently briefed international travel media on the Travelport Digital product strategy and the importance of mobile, including the just-launched Trip Assist and Trip Engage mobile technology for agencies.
After a passport, a smartphone is now the most indispensable travel item, with consumers driving the demand for immediacy – and 97% always have their mobile turned on.
Mobile also presents significant benefits to airlines and travel agencies, including the opportunity to engage with customers in ways that are just not possible in other channels. Mobile enables personalised, one-to-one, continuous engagement with consumers throughout their entire journey – pre-trip, 48 hours before departure, at airport, inflight, at destination, and post trip.
“Travelport Digital provides airlines, TMCs and OTAs with a speedy solution to market,” said Conor. “We can build a front end for an app in hours and develop it in weeks rather than months – and we are experienced in integrating to airline systems.”
Airline clients to date include easyJet and Etihad Airways, with the latter’s travel app now number one in five countries and the number one free app overall. Agency clients include BCD Travel, for whom I’m Safe and Air Disruption/Compensation modules will be added in 4Q2017, and, just this month, the XL Travel Group in South Africa.
XLGO, Trip Engage and Trip Assist
XL Travel Group’s new itinerary app, XLGO, is a first in the market and the first to deploy Trip Assist, Travelport’s new mobile technology for agencies. See the following slides and ittn.ie/news/travelport-powers-xlgo-mobile-itinerary-app-new-trip-assist-technology/ for further details:
