Ireland, Dublin – 10 May, 2011: Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, has outlined plans to invest in a new, in-house support function for its hotel and car supplier customers as part of its ongoing commitment to grow hotel and car bookings through its two GDS platforms, Galileo and Worldspan, as well as its online leisure portal, Travelport Leisure.
Two new dedicated helpdesks will be established to work closely with over 230 hotel and car customers to ensure that their content is distributed as widely and effectively as possible to travel retailers across the globe. The first of these will be located in the Travelport office in Dublin.
Today’s announcement follows other recent hospitality-focussed updates from Travelport, including news that a newly created team of dedicated hospitality business development managers have also been recruited to support travel agencies in key travel countries.
In 2010, Travelport generated a 12.1% growth in hotel bookings through Galileo and Worldspan compared to 2009 and recent industry figures provided in the latest Pegasus View report, indicate that corporate hotel bookings made through the GDS channel, will continue to grow by more than 20% through the second quarter of 2011.
Bryan Conway, Head of Global Operations for Travelport, commented: “There is significant scope for Travelport to play a pivotal role in this area by supporting growth and creating real marketing value for all of our hotel and car partners – I’m confident that this will be facilitated by establishing an industry-leading hotel and car support function in-house.”
Recruitment is now underway in Dublin, Ireland, to establish the first of the two helpdesks before a second, similar team is recruited in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the US. Travelport plans to get the two new teams fully trained and up and running by the summer.
Dave Walsh, Country Manger Ireland for Travelport, commented: “We are delighted Dublin has been chosen as the location for one of these helpdesks and the creation of these new positions which will be recruited locally is a great endorsement of the calibre of the Irish workforce, and specifically the calibre of Irish travel industry professionals. Anyone interested in applying for one of these exciting new positions can contact sales.ie@travelport for more information.”