Travelport and IBM are Expanding Their Partnership

Travelport announced it is expanding its longstanding partnership with IBM to further develop innovations designed to disrupt the travel industry.

Travelport has completed a proof of concept to streamline the validation, distribution and settlement of hotel content between its own platform, travel agencies and hotels, through IBM Blockchain. Separately, Travelport is turning to the IBM Watson Data Platform to personalize customer experiences with new tools and traveller recommendations.

In the first of two programs, Travelport is moving into the next phase of development using IBM Blockchain to streamline the hotel and in-trip experience ecosystem. Providing choices through content, seamless booking and fulfilment experience is crucial to traveller satisfaction. Through blockchain, travellers, experience providers and hotels can see notable benefits around the management and increased availability of so called 'long tail content'.

Travel agencies have faced many challenges with 'long tail content' due to the diverse nature of travel services and products, the large number of travel suppliers and their limited technical capabilities. Processing settlements across a diverse range of suppliers can be complicated and the entire process to reach a completed transaction often takes time. Consequently, agencies are often unable to sell the content due to issues in traveller experience and the cost of processing. By using blockchain, content could be managed to provide travel agencies confidence in the travel experience and ease of sale, while also enabling long-tail content suppliers to participate efficiently.

In a second initiative, Travelport and IBM are working together to generate enhanced travel experiences by leveraging Travelport's vast travel data. By applying IBM's Watson Analytics Studio, Travelport will develop new services, such as highlighting the best time to buy or providing personalized offer recommendations based on previously combined travel data. These will enable travel agency subscribers to bring more value to the travellers they serve, while making it easier to access the vast range of travel supplier content Travelport offers.