SMOOTH SAILING WITH AMADEUS
Amadeus has introduced a preview of Amadeus Cruise Shopper, “a comprehensive solution for leisure travel companies to sell cruises online while delivering next-generation search capabilities and tailored cruise offers for consumers.”Amadeus Cruise Shopper enables travel agencies to offer a unique online cruise shopping experience, customized cruise deals, better manage their sales process and increase their revenue-generating opportunities online. The program is designed to help travel agencies, franchises, consortia members, home-based agents, airlines and cruise lines benefit from the continued growth in online cruise booking and will roll out in the coming weeks. According to a PhoCusWright report, online sales in cruise grew 32% to hit $1.9 billion or 13% of all cruise sales in 2011 with double digit gains expected to continue through 2014. According to officials, Amadeus Cruise Shopper offers a semantic search option, which aligns with a traveller’s natural thought process, thereby simplifying the online shopping experience. Using Cruise Shopper’s semantic search feature prospective cruisers can type in phrases like “Cruises from Miami to Caribbean in July”or “What cruises stop in Juneau”and the search tool delivers customized results. Behind the scenes it even corrects any misspellings entered to assure a seamless search. “Amadeus Cruise Shopper leverages our extensive expertise and investment in the area of search technology and delivers an easy-to-use, intuitive consumer interface along with a comprehensive management platform,”said Scott Alvis, chief marketing officer, Amadeus North America. “Amadeus is committed to assuring that travel agencies have e-commerce solutions that deliver the best online experience for their customers and enable them to take advantage of the growing online cruise market.”In addition to semantic search, Amadeus Cruise Shopper offers drop-down filtered search menus across a wide range of criteria such as destination, departure city, port of call, date range, cruise line, budget, and cabin type. Travellers can view numerous options with side-by-side comparison for up to five cruises based on a summary of price, ship profile and features. Amadeus Cruise Shopper offers booking capabilities for 16 cruise lines representing more than 90% of the total worldwide cruise capacity available via global distribution systems today. Amadeus Cruise Shopper will be showcased at cruise3sixty in Vancouver, June 19-23, at Amadeus booth 327. Attendees who visit the booth and “connect”with Amadeus North America via Facebook and Twitter will receive a “Scratch and Win”card for a chance to win one of two $100 gift cards. (http://www.amadeus.com)
