Sabre Travel Network’s UK leisure drive goes Vertical

Sabre Travel Network and British travel agency systems provider Vertical Group have signed a joint preferred partnership agreement to expand the range of bookable products for both companies’ travel agency customers. The deal was announced today (Tuesday 5 October) at the Travel Technology Initiative’s autumn conference in London. The relationship boosts Sabre Travel Network’s recently announced UK leisure travel focus by giving travel agents a direct connection to Vertical Group’s Magic Desktop, which contains a wide range of bookable tour and leisure products. Magic Desktop will also become the point of access to Viewdata from the GDS. The reciprocal preferred partnership means most of the GDS bookings made through Magic Desktop will be made through the Sabre system, and opens up access to Sabre GDS content through Vertical Group’s Advanced Web Services. A prototype of the integrated booking product will be shown during World Travel Market in London in November, and both companies expect the arrangement to be fully operational by the end of 2004. “Back in July I spoke of our determination to develop strategic alliances to help boost our leisure offering,” said David Brown, Sabre Travel Network’s vice president, European leisure. “This is the first such alliance. Vertical Group has established itself as a leading player in the British leisure travel arena and we’re delighted we’ve been able to team up with the company to boost still further the service we offer Sabre Connected travel agencies.” Peter Healey, Vertical Group’s chief executive officer, said the deal would add value to both companies’ customers. “We bring high-value bookable leisure products to the party, while Sabre Travel Network brings a world of other bookable content,” Healey said. “Its strong presence in every channel of travel sales and distribution is important to travel providers and makes it a strong and attractive partner for Vertical Group and for our travel agency customers.” Sabre Travel Network’s UK leisure focus was further boosted last month (September) with the introduction of its cruise booking product to its to its travel agency customers here. Sabre CruiseDirector is available immediately and connects to the reservation systems of nine cruise lines. About Sabre Travel Network Sabre Travel Network, a Sabre Holdings company, provides access to the world’s leading global distribution system (GDS) enabling agents at more than 53,000 agency locations worldwide to be travel experts. The Sabre GDS, the first system to connect the buyers and sellers of travel, today includes more than 400 airlines, approximately 60,000 hotels, 37 car rental companies, nine cruise lines, 35 railroads and 220 tour operators. Key brands of Sabre Travel Network include GetThere, the leading Web-based corporate travel reservation technology, and Jurni Network, the unique leisure travel agency consortium that enables members to sell more products from preferred travel suppliers using sophisticated market intelligence. Sabre Holdings Corporation (NYSE: TSG) is a world leader in travel commerce, retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com About Vertical Group Vertical Group has been established for over 20 years and provides front and back office services to over 400 customers and over 1500 locations. Vertical Group is a true ‘one-stop’ technology supplier for the Leisure Travel Industry providing solutions across a secure high speed IP enabled network and is at the forefront in the drive to move away from product distribution over slower speed legacy networks and provides customers’ economies of scale in the provision of data, voice, call centre, home working, front & back office application, Internet, and hardware solutions. Vertical Group’s portfolio includes key technology products such as; TARSC, a leading front and back office system used by hundreds of travel agents throughout the UK & Ireland, Magic Desktop, a widely used point of sale travel portal; Internet Travel Services, offering a full suite of web services , dynamic packaging & fully bookable content; and Bloofish, giving tour operators a complete own stock management solution at a fraction of the cost of expensive and outdated legacy systems. More information about Vertical Group is available at http://www.verticalgroup.co.uk ##