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Sabre cruises into leisure sector
Package holidays, European cruises, specially negotiated hotel rates and specialist breaks are all due to be offered by Sabre as part of a major push into the leisure travel sector in Europe.
The GDS plans to offer cruise content by next month and exclusive European hotel rates by the last quarter of 2004.
Former Sabre Travel Network UK, Ireland and Nordic region director David Brown has taken responsibility for the new strategy in the new role as vice-president leisure for Europe. His UK and Nordic role is being taken by Reet Wiseman, previously Sabre’s vice-president of global accounts who headed the GDS in Canada for nine years until 2000.
Mr Brown is bringing 10 years of experience in the UK to the new position and expects a “substantial amount” of leisure content to become available for agents using Sabre by World Travel Market in November.
He declined to detail companies he is negotiating with but Sabre admits being in discussions with several “household name” tour operators.
Sabre in the US has signed a major distribution deal with Carnival Corporation and Mr Brown admitted that selling the cruise giant’s many brands would “make a lot of sense” for Sabre in Europe.
The GDS has identified leisure travel as a massive growth area for the UK and Germany, where it acquired Hamburg-based technology firm Dillon Communications Systems last November to make tour packages available to agents. DCS technology is likely to be used by Sabre in the UK.
Mr Brown said: “We have seen a 25% increase in German leisure bookings between January and May this year alone. We believe there is potential to duplicate this success in the UK.
“To be of greatest value to travel providers we need to be in more travel agencies than ever before. That means we need to give these agencies a greater range of travel content than ever before, and the leisure arena is a clear opportunity for growth.”
Report by Phil Davies
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