Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, has outlined plans to invest in a new, in-house support function for its hotel and car supplier customers as part of its ongoing commitment to grow hotel and car bookings through its two GDS platforms, Galileo and Worldspan, as well as its online leisure portal, Travelport Leisure.

Two new dedicated helpdesks will be established in Dublin, Ireland and Parsippany, New Jersey to work closely with over 230 hotel and car customers to ensure that their content is distributed as widely and effectively as possible to travel retailers across the globe. 

The announcement follows other recent hospitality-focussed updates from Travelport, including news that a newly created team of dedicated hospitality business development managers have been recruited to support travel agencies in key travel countries, including Serene Tan in Singapore and Ajay Verma in India. Together with Stephen Garton, based in Sydney, the team will work closely with travel agents to help them realise the potential of the hospitality sector, whilst providing the necessary on-the-ground training and educational support to earn new incremental revenue.

Simon Nowroz, Travelport’s President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific commented: “The establishment of a specialised global hotel and car helpdesk affirms our commitment to creating value for our hotel and car partners. The appointment of two new dedicated business development managers in the region will also ensure our travel agency customers receive the dedicated, localised support they deserve.”

In 2010, Travelport generated a 12.1% growth in hotel bookings through Galileo and Worldspan compared to 2009 and recent industry figures provided in the latest Pegasus View report, indicate that corporate hotel bookings made through the GDS channel, will continue to grow by more than 20% through the second quarter of 2011.