As outlined in our last post, we are operating in a highly digitalized world with rapidly evolving consumer expectations. This has only become more pronounced over the past year. Travelers demand choice and are looking for customized vacation packages and unique, new, and memorable experiences. They want recommendations and deals that are completely tailored to their needs and interests and are consistent in all channels.

At Sabre, we are committed to our vision to create a new marketplace for personalized travel, meeting the needs of travel companies and travelers with robust and relevant global content, innovative and agile technology, and key strategic partnerships to help accelerate our growth, and meet our customers’ unique and specific business needs.

In this post, we will take an in-depth look into personalization in travel, and how new technology is helping the industry evolve to a new, modern, and intelligent approach to retailing.

The importance of content in offering choice and personalization

In today’s travel ecosystem, travel agencies need access to the broadest range of content to enable them to offer increased choice and flexibility to customers, providing them with the personalized options and service they seek, which is crucial in gaining their trust to travel again.

At Sabre, we continually strive to provide relevant, expanded content, to allow full personalization of trips and thereby bringing value to agencies and their customers. Our marketplace features more than 400 airlines, 1 million properties, 40 car rentals, over 50 rail companies and 20 cruise lines, providing the rich and diverse content necessary to create the perfect trip for each traveler.   We also provide access to over 1 million properties through our Content Services for Lodging, which integrates traditional GDS content from hoteliers alongside content from Booking.com, Bedsonline, and Expedia Partner Solutions, making it easier for agencies to find the perfect property and rate for travelers.

Leveraging new technology to power personalization

Recognizing the need for a personalized travel marketplace, Sabre offers a rich, powerful, and common platform that is flexible and open to allow agencies to deliver forward-thinking, market-aligned products to meet consumer demand.

This industry-leading platform allows agencies to rapidly innovate and control their brand experience with flexible and customized solutions, enabling intelligent retailing through existing products, or the option to build custom solutions that drive revenue maximization and a differentiated brand experience.

Our innovative workflow, Sabre Red 360 brings the entire travel spectrum into full view, enabling our customers to meet the demands of the informed and savvy traveler, offering them an expanding selection of personalized options and the service they seek with direct access to industry leading content. Delivering rich content, like a consumer travel site, but also giving agencies the command of the classic blue screen, Sabre Red 360 is built on APIs from the Sabre platform and seamlessly integrates a new spectrum of bookable content and data-rich information. The simplified workflow makes it easy to display and sell branded fares, ancillaries, and air extras to generate additional revenue.

Leveraging Sabre’s technology leads to impressive results for both travel companies and the travelers themselves. Kyvernitis Travel, a leading corporate and leisure agency in Greece, found that air, land and hotel shopping options increased by 40% when they implemented Sabre Red 360, meaning that they were able to create more personalized itineraries for their customers. Award-winning travel management company, ITL World, also confirmed that employing Sabre Red 360 meant that they were able to offer customers a better service and more comprehensive itineraries in their 39+ offices.

Innovations and partnerships

As outlined in the previous post in this series, Sabre is committed to building the leading marketplace for personalized travel and investing in innovations and partnerships to accelerate our vision.

Our strategic partnership with Google will help us complete our tech transformation and build an advanced travel marketplace, taking Google’s knowledge of data and Sabre’s travel experience to create best-in-class capabilities. The first result of this collaboration with Google was Sabre Travel AI which leverages AI and machine learning tools to analyze and predict consumer behaviors. By delivering the right offer, at the right time across all relevant channels, our customers are positioned to deliver tailored personalization to travelers, thereby driving higher conversion rates and building traveler loyalty. Sabre Travel AI will deliver next-generation technology advancements that enrich products across the Sabre retail, distribution and fulfillment portfolio.

In summary, the vital role that personalization plays in today’s travel marketplace is clear and as such it’s hugely important to invest in technology that creates a highly intelligent and tailored shopping experience in order to tap into recovery growth and win back the trust of consumers. Content is key in creating this personalized experience, and offering the choice and flexibility that travelers demand. In the next installment of this blog series, we will provide more insight into the role of content in the current travel ecosystem.

To read more about Sabre’s work on personalization please see How agencies can drive value through technology and  Looking beyond the crisis towards a new era of personalized travel