Travelport Launches Beta Version of Marketplace

Travelport has launched the beta version of its Marketplace online retail site designed for Travelport’s customers to browse, discover and access innovative products built both by Travelport and partner developers who are members of the Travelport Developer Network (TDN).

“The Marketplace is part of the ongoing evolution of the Travelport Developer Network and the commitment we have to the third party developer community,” said Chris Zando, vice president, Global Partnerships, Alliances & Regional Product Management.

Travelport Marketplace provides TDN members with a marketplace to promote and sell their products and services to 67,000 Travelport-connected agencies globally. A key component of Travelport’s Open Platform strategy, Travelport Marketplace is designed to help developers build innovative products that work in harmony with Travelport technologies and add value to Travelport-connected travel agencies.

In the future, agencies will find not only companion apps for the company’s agency desktops; Travelport Smartpoint and Travelport Universal Desktop but also a place to discover suitable partners for a broad range of agency IT tools designed to provide improved customer service and create new revenue streams – from internet booking engine providers to mobile app developers.

Phil Donathy, product director, Developer Tools, Travelport, said, “We want developers to know about Marketplace. We’re asking them to provide input and test-drive our platform. In line with our open ethos, we're sharing a live working product so the developer community can help shape the direction in advance of a commercial launch to Travelport agency customers in 2014.”

In tandem with Marketplace, Travelport is also launching a Software Development Kit (SDK) for Travelport Smartpoint which will allow developers to build plug-ins that integrate with the desktop used by the majority of Travelport agencies.

“Today we're in alpha testing for the Travelport Smartpoint SDK with ten customers, four agencies, and six members of TDN. At PhoCusWright, we’ll be looking for development partners for a beta program that will be kicked off early next year,” Donathy added.

Tommi Holmgren, chief product officer of Cabforce, one of the earliest adopters of Smartpoint SDK says, “Travelport Smartpoint SDK and the Marketplace offer us an excellent opportunity to distribute our taxi and airport transfer content to travel agencies and to fuel our global growth. With our app, agencies can sell door-to-door trips to their passengers with just couple of clicks, making Smartpoint an extremely powerful point-of-sale that helps drive higher revenue per trip.”