SOUTHLAKE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 8, 2006–Sabre Holdings (NYSE: TSG) today announced the launch of TripTailor(TM), the newest addition to the Sabre Holdings family of travel brands. TripTailor is a new travel wholesaler business from Sabre that is part of its one-stop shop offerings for travel agencies to create customized trips for their customers – a unique travel package built specifically for each traveler to more than 1,500 destinations throughout the United States and around the world. With the debut of TripTailor, Sabre(R) connected agents gain the capability to easily search for the best and most cost-effective combination of air, hotel, car and travel extras for both advanced and last-minute bookings.
TripTailor provides a single source on an agent’s desktop to shop for packages available worldwide, offering more than 1,700 travel extras in over 150 destinations, including admission or reservations to attractions, shows, special events, tours, fine dining, transfers, parking and many more activities, as well as travel protection. Agents can book fully customized vacations including flights to more than 200,000 city pairs months in advance, or just prior to departure for long or short, domestic or international, and budget or luxury vacations. Agents access TripTailor directly through TripTailor.com or through the MySabre(TM) agent booking portal.
“Trip Tailor has made travel agents and travel agencies a force to reckon with in this competitive travel marketplace,” said David Butler, president of Travel Club Advantage. “On behalf of our agency and our many clients, we say thank you and look forward to a continued relationship in bringing great travel prices and packages to our clients. We will be making use of it on a daily basis.”
According to PhocusWright research, packaged travel is expected to reach $23 billion in 2006 – up from $15 billion in 2002. Not only is the total packaged travel market growing, but the percent of dynamic packages booked will also grow from 11% of all packages to 45% in 2006.
“TripTailor offers a tremendous breadth of travel alternatives and enables agents to search through all of them to create a package that is, quite literally, tailored to the individual traveler’s needs, interests and tastes,” said Dan Westbrook, general manager of the new TripTailor brand. “Now, agents have the opportunity to sell packaged travel on almost every booking that involves more than one element of travel – and it puts this capability on the agents’ desktop -which means increased efficiency, as well as improved customer value and additional revenue opportunities.
“TripTailor reinforces the expertise of the travel professional, and provides 24-hour, toll-free support. We are on call to be sure that what the travel agent sells is delivered,” Westbrook continued.
TripTailor can be used for all types of travel. By combining arrangements for flight, hotel and rental car, and even making dining reservations and excursion bookings simultaneously, travelers benefit with a lower price than if they purchased everything separately, agents provide more value to their customers, and the added value adds more to the agents’ bottom line as well.
TripTailor is the first of the new offerings to be announced that will be part of Sabre Travel Network’s leisure end-to-end portfolio, first announced in June. TripTailor joins the existing Agent59(TM) last-minute package offering. Agent59 feeds into TripTailor – when searching through TripTailor, if a better deal is available through Agent59, the agent is alerted.
“The real key to TripTailor is the almost unlimited flexibility and choice it offers – with myriad destinations and 1,700 travel extras, it significantly expands the vacation package concept. Ultimately TripTailor is designed to be a great partner for agencies looking to boost their profitability and enrich the lives of their travelers.”
About TripTailor
TripTailor, a Sabre Holdings key brand, is a travel wholesaler that provides travel agencies the opportunity to offer packaged value everywhere their customers want to go, bringing vacation dreams to life for consumers to over 200,000 origins and destination combinations. Through its relationships with the world’s leading airlines, hoteliers and destination service providers, TripTailor enables travelers to have a truly customized vacation experience. TripTailor values the expertise of travel counselors in enhancing the travel experience, and provides its products only through travel agencies. TripTailor is a sister brand of Agent59 in North America, HolidaysAndMore in the UK, TotalTrip in Argentina, and is part of Sabre Travel Network’s end-to-end suite for travel agents focused on leisure travel.
Sabre Holdings (NYSE: TSG) connects people with the world’s greatest travel possibilities by retailing travel products and providing distribution and technology solutions for the travel industry. More information about Sabre Holdings is available at http://www.sabre-holdings.com.
TripTailor, Agent 59, MySabre, Sabre Holdings, Sabre Travel Network and Total Trip are trademarks and/or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre Holdings Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
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CONTACT: Sabre Holdings
Kathryn Hayden, 682-605-2252
kathryn.hayden@sabre-holdings.com
SOURCE: Sabre Holdings
