Sabre Corporation, the leading software and technology company powering the global travel industry, today announced the signing of a long-term, technology agreement with BIDTravel, the cluster head of Rennies BCD Travel, Quadrel Travel Management t/a CWT, Travel Connections and Harvey World Travel, the leading business and leisure travel network in Southern Africa.
The agreement positions BIDTravel to tap into advancements in technology to accelerate through this low-demand period. Despite numerous lockdowns around the world, BIDTravel’s businesses has already been successfully migrated to Sabre in an entirely virtual program that was pioneered by both teams.
“After an extensive selection process, we chose Sabre to help us drive the digital transformation of our business,” said Lidia Folli, CEO at BIDTravel. “This was due to the long-term relevance of its platform, effectiveness of its APIs and our confidence in Sabre’s vision for personalised travel. As the largest travel network in Southern Africa, we need technology that is scalable, while enabling us to deliver a service that is personalised, cost-effective and consistent through every touchpoint.”
BIDTravel’s agents will now leverage the industry-leading technology, data-driven insights and intuitive interface of Sabre Red 360 – the next-generation travel agency desktop – allowing them to further enhance the consultative service they offer travelers.
“BIDTravel has extremely successful travel brands that we are eager to partner with,” said Salman Syed, Sabre’s vice president EMEA, Travel Solutions. “Our tried and tested partnership model for migration meant an on-time implementation, even during these turbulent times. We mobilised our global teams across five different time zones virtually to accelerate this “go-live”; having the right technology in place will now help BIDTravel’s agents rebuild consumer confidence to travel, while crafting differentiated experiences.”
Sabre, which has been steadily winning customers through this low demand period, recently announced the development of Sabre Travel AI TM. This industry-first technology will be infused with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learnings capabilities to deliver highly relevant and personalized content that better meets the demands of today’s traveler.
About Sabre
Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR) is the leading technology provider to the global travel industry. Sabre’s software, data, mobile and distribution solutions are used by hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotel properties to manage critical operations, including passenger and guest reservations, revenue management, flight, network and crew management. Sabre also operates a leading global travel marketplace, which processes more than US$120 billion of global travel spend annually by connecting travel buyers and suppliers. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world.
About BIDTravel
BIDTravel is Southern Africa’s leading and largest group of travel company’s including Rennies BCD Travel, Quadrel Travel Management t/a CWT, Travel Connections and Harvey World Travel, providing travel management services to corporate businesses and leisure travellers through extensive local, regional, international and online networks via its various travel brands. BIDTravel manages the travel programme of several blue-chip corporates within Africa across a myriad of different industries within in an online and offline channel. BIDTravel has a multi branded strategy and through its extensive preferred supplier programme, BIDTravel brings significant value to its customers from a cost and service perspective. Bidvest Travel is part of the services division of Bidvest Limited (JSE: BID) headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
