With the New Year approaching and many people thinking about their travel plans for 2010, Travelport.com asked the company’s three top business executives to write about their favorite destinations.
Jeff Clarke, President and CEO, Travelport
Few cities in the world can match Paris for its combination of history, art, culture, business, politics, entertainment, food, wine and all-around joie de vivre. You can lose yourself for a day in the Louvre or a sidewalk cafe - or literally get lost (pleasantly) in the winding streets of an ancient city.
I had the great experience of living in Paris for two years from 1996-98, which gave me an appreciation of the city and its people that only time and familiarity can really provide. It’s fascinating to revisit the places I lived, walk the same streets again, and get re-acquainted with the city squares, museums, bookstores and restaurants I knew so well - to see what has changed and what has stayed the same, and how my own perspective has changed after more than a decade away. Read more »
Read more Miscellaneous posts |
for Miscellaneous |
No Comments »
In my last two blogs, I’ve written about the continued relevance of the GDS and the need for our industry to invest in new ways to meet the needs of our customers for richer content and greater choice. But it will take more than individual company investments to change the way we’ve been operating for so many years. Real change will come when all the players in the travel industry engage around a shared view of a new model for global distribution, rather than pursuing sometimes conflicting proprietary goals.
We need a new model because we are entering a new era - one that will be characterized by widespread adoption of innovative, technology-enabled services that will facilitate new ways of aggregating, displaying and transacting travel content. The model I envision is one that unites our travel industry in a way that puts our mutual customer - the traveller - at the centre of everything we do. It will:
- Accommodate a vast array of supplier travel options
- Provide agencies with relevant, tailored opportunities at the point of sale
- Deliver solutions that work across multiple channels - the agency as well as the corporate client desktop - and source content from multiple channels
- Enable individuals and corporations to buy travel the way they want to
- And focus on delivering choice and value to informed travellers.
Read more »
Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson is Deputy CEO of Travelport and President and CEO of Travelport GDS, responsible for its global activities across 160 countries. Travelport GDS is a provider of next-generation IT solutions for airlines worldwide, as well as innovative data intelligence solutions for airlines and other companies that rely on travel industry intelligence for growth and success.
Read more entries by Gordon Wilson |
for Gordon Wilson
Read more Technology posts |
for Technology |
No Comments »
We’ve learned during the last few years - starting roughly with the SARS outbreak in Asia in 2003 - that fear caused by an epidemic or pandemic can create havoc in the travel and tourism industry. It’s understandable, of course. Travelers don’t want to take unnecessary risks with their health, and governments want to protect their citizens.
But we also learned with the H1N1 outbreak in Mexico and the U.S. last spring that disease is not the only risk. Poor information-sharing by governments can exacerbate the situation by leading them to make poorly informed decisions on travel advisories and bans.
Rumor and speculation, rather than facts, guided far too many global governmental decisions regarding how people should travel and how goods should be transported between countries. This inconsistent messaging and miscommunication caused many companies and individuals to cancel travel plans - adding to the already immense challenges of a global economic downturn. This can have a cascading effect on the travel and tourism industry, which generates approximately $5.5 trillion in economic activity annually, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Read more »
Jeff Clarke
Jeff Clarke is Chief Executive Officer and President of Travelport and serves as a Director on the Travelport Board of Directors, appointed in May 2006. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Orbitz Worldwide.
Read more entries by Jeff Clarke |
for Jeff Clarke
Read more Travel Policy posts |
for Travel Policy |
No Comments »
Travelport is at its core a travel technology company. It takes world-class information technology to manage 15,000 messages a second, process more than 1 billion transactions on peak days and provide critical reservations systems and operations support for our airline customers. During the past two years we’ve invested more than $500 million in our transaction processing capabilities.
It’s gratifying, then, when an independent organization recognizes the work we do. InformationWeek magazine recently ranked Travelport No. 11 on its InformationWeek 500 for our innovative use of information technology. This is a prestigious list because it doesn’t just look at what companies spend on information technology - it looks at how innovative they are in using IT to serve customers and grow their businesses. (You can see the 2009 rankings by clicking here.) I’m proud to say that Travelport had the only GDS ranked in the Top 250. Read more »
Jeff Clarke
Jeff Clarke is Chief Executive Officer and President of Travelport and serves as a Director on the Travelport Board of Directors, appointed in May 2006. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Orbitz Worldwide.
Read more entries by Jeff Clarke |
for Jeff Clarke
Read more Technology posts |
for Technology |
No Comments »
It’s not often that the leading players in a highly competitive industry come together behind a common cause. But sometimes the opportunity to make a difference in our world is so profound that the decision to act collectively is an easy one.
Travelport recently joined with our GDS competitors, Sabre and Amadeus, to support the Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health, which supports the work of UNITAID in its global mission to combat such life-threatening diseases as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries.
Through a Millennium Foundation initiative called MASSIVEGOOD, our three companies will offer travellers a convenient and secure way to give back through a simple voluntary donation of $2, €2, £2 or more. The contribution process will be built into our point of sale applications and will be available whether travellers book online or through a travel agent. (Click here to view a video that explains more.) Read more »
Jeff Clarke
Jeff Clarke is Chief Executive Officer and President of Travelport and serves as a Director on the Travelport Board of Directors, appointed in May 2006. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Orbitz Worldwide.
Read more entries by Jeff Clarke |
for Jeff Clarke
Read more Message from the CEO posts |
for Message from the CEO |
No Comments »
RSS Feed
