Technology For Productivity (Travel Agencies) Technology For Productivity (Travel Agencies)

Embracing the Storm to
Lean Into Innovation and Change

The Asia Pacific region was the first to be hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and to face the challenges of managing the crisis earlier than any other market in the world. Despite this, some travel agencies in the region decided not to stop their development plans trusting the situation would have ended at one point and business would have been reinstated in a more competitive environment than ever.

It was clear since the beginning that only those business ready to embrace the storm and take advantage of such an abnormal situation to lean into innovation and change, would have not only survived but emerge as leaders on the other side of it.

Akbar Travels of India

Akbar Travels is one of India’s largest travel company. The firm was established in 1978 with a humble beginning and has enjoyed exponential growth ever since. Today Akbar Travels has 150 branches across India, 36 offices in the Middle East, Malaysia, UK, Italy and the US.

In the second half of last year, Akbar decided to implement Sabre Red 360 and – along with that - Content Services for Lodging APIs to enable its agents to more easily shop, compare and book more than a million lodging options for clients while in the past they would have to search and book outside the GDS, via multiple sources and supplier channels.

Sabre’s Content Services for Lodging powers agency and corporate booking tools, integrating traditional GDS content from hoteliers, alongside content from the likes of Booking.com, Bedsonline and Expedia Partner Solutions.

The actual implementation started in November 2019 and was completed in February this year, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic break out, and was not stopped even if the staff was moved to remote working. The final testing and payment platform implementation were completed straight after, between April and May. In parallel to that activities, the first Akbar agents were trained to use the new CSL tool. In June the agency has started to book hotel content through the new platform while development is still in progress for the Pre-Payment API option.

“There are already clear signs of a pent-up demand for travel post Covid-19 and we needed technological solutions which provide us with the most intuitive way to shop and book for our travellers in order to provide truly personalized options for our clients.” - Mr. K.V. Abdul Nazar, Chairman & Managing Director of Akbar Travels of India