Bangkok--Sep 24--Galaxy Travel Distribution System
National Tourist Organisations Can Use TBRS to Generate New Revenue!
Galaxy Travel Distribution System Ltd., specialising in on-line global travel distribution systems for ground services, today announced the introduction of Galaxy TBRS?, an innovative Tourist Board Reservation System specially designed to assist national tourist organisations (NTOs) in capitalising on their own reservation potential, thus generating more income for tourism promotion for their respective regions. The announcement was made at PATA Travel Mart 2004 (PTM 2004), held from 22 — 24 September 2004, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand.
Developed by Galaxy and marketed worldwide by Tourism in Action BV, Ltd, The Netherlands, Galaxy TBRS? offers NTOs multi- product reservation capabilities for accommodations, packages, excursions, transfers and other products on a 'pay per view basis'. This enables the NTO to sell products for its members in its own call and information centres AND to thrive on the internet, using one system, without the necessity of making any upfront investment in this usually expensive technology. Tourist organisations which employ Galaxy TBRS? pay only a modest service fee when reservations actually materialise.
Mr. Tim Diets, Managing Partner of Tourism in Action, said "For many years, tourist boards in Europe have struggled with expensive proprietary, non-scalable reservation technology. The industry environment today is such that NTOs are no longer richly funded by their local governments. They therefore need to capitalise on their local reservation potential in order to generate enough income to survive financially and fulfil their primary objective: marketing and promotion of, and information about their destination, in order to generate visitors.”
“With Galaxy TBRS?, we enable our NTO clients to play an important role on behalf of their member hotels AND save on labour costs at the same time," stated Diets. "Already, more than 600 hotels in The Netherlands actively use the module, that is offered to them by the Tourist Boards of Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. In the near future we will extend the module with functionality for excursion providers and packages."
Diets went on to say, “With Galaxy TBRS?, NTOs throughout the Asia-Pacific region can also capitalise on their local reservation potential while simultaneously marketing and promoting their respective destinations. As a result, from today, we will be actively offering this unique reservation platform to all NTOs in the Asia-Pacific region.”
In the Asia-Pacific region, Galaxy and Tourism in Action will cooperatively market Galaxy TBRS? through Galaxy’s National Marketing Companies (NMCs). These independently owned travel companies serve as the distribution, training and support centres for all of Galaxy’s on-line products. Galaxy drives its marketing globally via four regional Sales and Support offices located in Asia-Pacific, Middle East/Africa, North America, Latin America and Europe.
For more information regarding Galaxy TBRS?, please contact Mr Tim Diets, Managing Partner of Tourism in Action, Mr Marco Gorin, Galaxy’s Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing or Mr Paul Blahuta, Galaxy’s Director of Sales Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and CIS Countries, at the PTM 2004 “Network Lounge”, which Galaxy is co-sponsoring during the three-day event.
Issued by Galaxy Distribution System Ltd. For more information, please contact:
Mr G.E. “Coke” Mead
Director — Public Relations
Incentive Dynamics (S) Pte. Ltd.
PR Counsel to Galaxy Distribution System Ltd.
Tel/Fax: 66-2 — 691 — 7193
Mobile: 66-1 — 850 — 7979
Email: [email protected]
For more information regarding Galaxy regional initiatives and developments please contact:
Mr Paul Blahuta
Director of Sales Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa and CIS Countries
Galaxy Distribution System Ltd.
Sydney, Australia
Mobile No: (61) (0) 400 307 207
Email: [email protected]
Note to Editors:
Galaxy Distribution System Ltd. (www.galaxy-system.com) is an on-line global travel distribution system for ground services, which enables travel agents worldwide to immediately access, book, confirm and settle payments on-line and at the best possible prices. Galaxy provides travel agents with a direct link to a global supply of wholesale-priced and specially priced travel products from a variety of direct suppliers. Settlement is via Galaxy Billing and Settlement Plan (Galaxy BSP).
At present, Galaxy's software solutions address primarily the leisure travel market, which is the fastest growing segment of the travel industry. Additionally, however, rapid inroads are being made by Galaxy to support the growing needs of corporate travel, where increased emphasis is placed on cost management. Worldwide expenditures for all categories of travel have been estimated by the World Travel and Tourism Council at $1.5 trillion, with 2004 expected to register a 6% increase, followed by an average annual increase of 4.5% over the next 10 years.
Galaxy’s unique GroundServices? is a multi-language system that automates the sales, procurement, delivery and invoicing functions, currently handled predominantly manually, around-the-clock in a user-friendly, vendor-neutral, secure and confidential environment. Rolled out during the first half of 2002 and currently being marketed to Receptive Inbound Operators globally by Galaxy’s NMC partners, GroundServices? is a virtual private network ("VPN") made available by Galaxy to users on a rental basis in return for a minimal percentage fee for each transaction put through the system.
Galaxy’s Travel Distribution System (Galaxy TDS) is specifically designed to give retail travel agents easy, direct booking access to competitively priced hotel rooms and other ground services. Launched in 2003, Galaxy’s TDS filters best rates and availability from among numerous ground services suppliers in each destination, giving travel agents access to the most competitive rates in the market. Rates come direct from the principal source of wholesale-priced ground services, the Receptive Inbound Operators, and from a wide range of suppliers who provide their inventories directly to Galaxy without the need for third-party content aggregators. These industry suppliers have deep-discounted arrangements with hotels and other ground services providers, but generally do not trade directly with travel agents for credit reasons.
Incorporated in Hong Kong in 1993, the company has its marketing and training operations in Bangkok, Thailand, - where it is registered under BOI status received from the Thai Board of Investment - with its product development centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where it also has MSC Status within the Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor.
Notes to Editors:
Tourism in Action BV Ltd (www.tourisminaction.com) was founded in mid-2000 to fill the void that existed among reservation systems for Tourist Boards in Europe. Overall, the company can be characterized as a synergy at work. Tourism in Action is intended to offer industry wide reservation and information solutions, enabling its customers to capitalise on their own natural resources without heavy investments. The company owners have many years of experience, ranging from the congress industry and international tourist boards to IBM Europe, Middle East & Africa, major international hotel chains, airlines and car rental companies as well as incoming agents.
For more information regarding Galaxy TBRS?, please contact:
Mr Tim Diets
Managing Partner
Tourism in Action B.V.
Anna Blamanlaan 33
2104 SC Heernstede, The Netherlands
Tel: +31-23-5478163
Fax: +31-23-5471618
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.tourisminaction.com End.
--InfoQuest (EB)--