Sabre Corp. leads technology innovation at Arabian Travel Market

Sabre Corporation was awarded most innovative stand at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai this year as the company launched TripCase for the Apple Watch app.

Sabre continues to lead technology innovation in the aviation sector.

“With TripCase, we want to use technology to enrich and enable travelers’ real life by making travel even easier,” said Joakim Everstin, head of innovation for Sabre Travel Network, EME.

The new app will give users the ability to quickly check airline and hotel reservations, access flight details, including real-time alerts and confirmation codes, and map interesting destinations as they walk pass them.

This year’s ATM focused heavily on successful online strategies that leverage a 92 percent global mobile penetration.

Speakers addressed challenges in the Gulf market, which has been reluctant to adopt new travel innovations. According to Ali J Hashimi, Google’s industry manager of travel and government, Middle East & North Africa, users are surrounded by technology they aren’t engaging in.

Companies like TripCase face the challenge of getting information to consumers at the very moment it is needed. For Everstin, this makes wearable technology increasingly significant.

“With a quick tap of a button on the Apple Watch, TripCase users can easily save great restaurants, shops or activities they find along their journey,” he said. “With such an application, we take some of the pain travelers face during their journeys and provide them with relevant and personalized details.”

TripCase has seen great success. More than half a million users have downloaded the app on wearable Android devices. In 2014 alone, users managed 30 million trips around the world through the app.

According to a Global Trends report released by Euromonitor International at this year’s ATM, TripCase is not the only company jumping on the wearable technology trend.

Expedia released a travel app for the Samsung Galaxy Gear in August of 2014, and Starwood has plans to use the Apple Watch as a room key for travelers.

By 2016, the report says, wearable technology will play a prominent role in the Gulf, and the industry will have to adapt.

TripCase is ready, said Everstin. “Wearable technology is going to continue to become a prominent means of customer notification and communication,” he said. “We’re looking to take it even further – from a one-way means of communication to an interactive on-the-go service experience.”

ATM is the Middle East’s largest travel trade event. It showcases 2,700 exhibitors, 64 national pavilions, over 35 seminar and technology theatre sessions. The event hosts more than 33,000 participants from more than 130 countries and business deals worth over $2.1 billion signed over the four days.