CEBU, Philippines - The growth of the tourism industry has mirrored its effect in one of the leading providers of technology and solutions for the travel and tourism industry.
Amadeus, the largest processor of travel bookings worldwide and is the leading Global Distribution System supplier in Asia Pacific, has noted a tremendous growth reaching to double digits for this year.
This was revealed by the company during a first round table discussion with members of Cebu media at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.
Albert Villadolid, general manager of Amadeus Philippines of the Amadeus IT group SA, said that they are very eager to face the new year since their projected growth of 10 percent has already been met months before.
Villadolid explained that since Amadeus Philippines was introduced in 1997 they have witnessed many times how the economy along with the travel industry has dipped due to crisis.
But after the country’s economy went down in 2008 due to the global financial crisis, they are happy the numbers for this year are already showing a good sign and attests to the recovery especially of the tourism industry.
“The double digit growth in booking in the Philippines alone is over the hill and clear sign of path recovery,” said Villadolid who added that they are the market leader in Cebu where 50 percent of the international bookings are made through their systems which is used by most travel agencies.
In the Philippines, Amadeus has increased its market share with 40 percent of travel companies using its IT system. About 90 percent of the world’s leading airlines and nine out of 10 travel agencies are using Amadeus.
Amadeus, which is present in 39 countries, has 19,500 travel agency customers worldwide and more than 200 hotel IT and 92 airline customers in Asia Pacific.
The company has added more domestic airline companies with Seair and Zest Airways joining in Cebu Pacific as clients.
Amadeus also has around 36 percent of the global market share over the other major players providing the same service. Villadolid said that Amadeus though had the “last mover” advantage since they were able to adopt newer developments over the other players and that they ventured into hotel and airline IT which their competitors did not do.
Villadolid said that they now plan to tap the IT system of the rail travel operations, as well as through cruises and airports.
Valladolid also credited the growth of the industry to OFW remittances as they are motivated by the bargain offers of the travel companies.
He said that the presence of the online social networking sites has also added to the growth of the tourism industry which attests that more are heeding technology to overcome challenges brought upon by business concerns like the crisis.
Amadeus is seeing a good year next year with more travel bookings which Villadolid said would reach their 2007 levels that still had better positive results without the presence of the crisis yet. —AJ dela Torre