Growth in local content opens door to significant Sabre expansion

Sabre is attributing significant recent growth in the Scandinavian market to the fact that it has strengthened and broadened the amount of local content it can offer travel agencies here. Speaking at a press briefing in Stockholm this week (11 September), the company’s managing director for the Nordic region, Dawnne Unger, unveiled new Scandinavian ground transportation functionality in the Sabre global distribution system (GDS), including airport buses, taxis, the Arlanda Express and other rail content.

Sabre has achieved some spectacular new business successes in Scandinavia recently. Over the past four months alone it has won five significant accounts from all three of its competitors in the region. The latest conversion, Danish travel agency UNITAS Rejser A/S, was announced this week, together with the fact that Norwegian agency OrkidéEkspressen has strengthened its existing relationship with Sabre.

“The fact that OrkidéEkspressen has chosen to change its previous dual-GDS environment, in favour of an exclusive relationship with Sabre, speaks volumes for the strides we are making in this market”, Unger said.

OrkidéEkspressen and UNITAS Rejser A/S followed Danish agency Check Point Travel into the Sabre fold. It, in turn, followed Swedish corporate and leisure travel specialist Oden Resor. Swedish travel agencies CTC and Resespjuth started the trend back in May.

Unger said Sabre had more than doubled its booking share across the whole of Scandinavia over the past two years. Approximately 14 percent of all Scandinavian travel booked through a GDS is now booked through Sabre.

“We have some way yet to go before we reach our Scandinavian booking share target, but I’m confident that we’ll reach our goal, especially if we can maintain our current momentum”, she said.

“We are incredibly proud of the progress we are making in Scandinavia, but also humbled by the tremendous amount of goodwill and trust that our new and existing customers are extending to us”.

Sabre’s growth in Scandinavia is being echoed across Europe – the GDS reports 11 significant European travel agency conversions since the start of the year. These have strengthened the company’s position in Scandinavia, grown its French booking share by two percent, given it bookings leadership in Greece and opened the door to the Uniglobe franchise in the UK.

Chris Kroeger, Sabre’s senior vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said much of the new business had resulted from the GDS developing products to match its customers’ evolving needs, and from its technological leadership in areas such as online travel, customer relationship management, and revenue maximisation.

“This, combined with our ongoing development of local content and our commitment to customer service excellence, has given us the edge. We’ve long been a global leader, as well as a local partner for the travel agency in all our markets”, Kroeger said.

About Sabre Holdings Corporation

Sabre is the leading provider of technology, distribution and marketing services for the travel industry. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the company has approximately 7,000 employees in 45 countries. Sabre reported 2001 revenues of $2.1 billion. Sabre owns Travelocity.com, the most popular travel site on the Web, and GetThere, the world’s leading provider of Web-based travel reservation systems for corporations and travel suppliers. Sabre is an S&P 500 company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TSG). More information about Sabre is available at www.sabre.com.

Sabre has a dedicated office serving the Nordic region. Sabre personnel, based in the company’s Nordic office in Stockholm, identify the needs of the local market and develop new and existing tools to help local agencies and associates better serve their clients.

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