Sabre Cruises to help agents increase revenues with ease
SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 8, 2006–Sabre Travel Network, the world’s largest and most rewarding marketplace for buying and selling travel, today announced the launch of Sabre Cruises, a new cruise shopping and booking tool with increased and improved functionality, as the latest enhancement to its end-to-end leisure collection. With the new Sabre Cruises, travel agents will have access to a browser-based booking engine accompanied by expanded functionality and rich graphical content when shopping and booking cruises.
“The increased functionality of the new Sabre Cruises product will allow agents to save time, increase their revenues and book the best cruises for their customers,” said Greg Webb, chief marketing officer for Sabre Travel Network. “There’s no longer a need for travel agents to spend time on the phone calling multiple cruise lines. Our Web-based tool provides a single source for shopping and booking cruises allowing online access to cruise line inventory during the busiest seasons, 24/7.”
The automated shopping and booking capabilities of Sabre Cruises reduces research time by providing travel agents with complete access to cruise line content, fares, commissions, rates and more. The tool allows agents to identify cruises that best match customer preferences and provide travelers the best value for their money, along with the best margin for the agency.
“Sabre Cruises provides our travel agents with comprehensive information about cruises in one single place,” said Javier Vidal, vice president of Rennert Travel. “Sabre Cruises simplifies the booking process by providing travelers the details they need to guide them through their experience, and providing agents an automated, intuitive tool designed to reduce time and boost efficiency. We are very excited to be using this new tool built with the travel agent in mind.”
Travel agents are a significant resource to travelers when booking cruises. In 2005, more than 90 percent of people who cruised said they used a travel agent to make their choice, 80-90 percent of cruise lines sales in 2005 came through the travel agency channel.
Sabre Cruises provides travel agents access to 12 cruise lines, representing over 85 percent of Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) cruise cabins from a single source. In addition, travel agents receive online access to cruise line inventory and easy options for up-selling cabin categories and for selling pre-sailing and post-sailing packages.
Sabre Cruises will be available through the Vacations and Cruises store on MySabre, which integrates the traditional Sabre reservation system booking tools with Web fares, other booking tools and localized content – all from the travel agent’s desktop. The new cruise product serves as another example of Sabre’s commitment to providing agencies with the most comprehensive shop for all of their travel needs.
“This version of Sabre Cruises is very simple to use and is one of the best tools currently available for booking cruises,” said Bob Newman, CLIA certified master cruise counselor at Cruise Brothers.
The easy-to-use, browser-based tool provides Sabre Connected travel agents with rich graphical content such as cabin and deck plan images, enabling agents to show their clients what a cabin looks like and where it is located on the ship. Additional examples of new functionality that is available to agents include:
-- Cross vendor shopping - allows agents to shop multiple cruise
lines at once
-- Cancel/Modify - provides the ability to cancel or change a
booking through automation
-- Branch access - allows an agent to create, cancel and modify
reservations in another pseudo city code (PCC), with
authorization for that PCC
-- PNR merge back - automatically creates a passenger name record
(PNR) in host Sabre
-- Local currency - displays rates in the local currency for
travel agencies
-- Twelve cruise lines - Carnival, Celebrity, Costa, Crystal,
Cunard, Disney Cruise Lines, Holland America, Island Cruises,
Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean and
Windstar
Additional functionality will be added to Sabre Cruises throughout 2007. The product is currently available for Sabre Connected travel agents across North America, with expansion plans for Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific in 2007.
Sabre Cruises is a continuation of the new suite of leisure offerings announced this year as part of Sabre Travel Network’s leisure end-to-end portfolio. Sabre Cruises joins the existing TripTailor travel wholesale and Agent59(TM) last-minute package offerings, providing agents industry-leading capabilities to manage their leisure travel.
About Sabre Travel Network
Sabre Travel Network, a Sabre Holdings company, provides the most comprehensive end-to-end solutions for corporate and leisure travel. The Sabre GDS is the foundation for these solutions, providing a ready-built efficient marketplace that connects travel suppliers, including hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotels, with more than 50,000 travel agency locations.
Key brands of Sabre Travel Network include GetThere, for corporate travel reservation technology; Jurni Network, a consortium of leisure travel agencies providing marketing and promotion services; Nexion, a host agency; SynXis, for hotel reservation management, distribution and technology services; and TRAMS, mid- and back-office solutions and marketing services for travel agencies. Sabre Travel Network also markets TripTailor, a travel wholesaler providing dynamic packaging for the travel agency marketplace.
Sabre Holdings (NYSE:TSG) connects people with the world’s greatest travel possibilities by retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.
CONTACT: Sabre Travel Network
Kathryn Hayden, 682-605-2252
kathryn.hayden@sabre-holdings.com
SOURCE: Sabre Travel Network
