Abacus
International, Asia Pacific’s leading provider of travel solutions
and services, announced a new collaboration with PayPal, a world
leading online
payment provider,
to equip travel companies with the solutions needed to stay ahead in
the fast-changing online travel industry.
Abacus
will integrate PayPal as a payment option in their ready-to-go online
booking engines, Abacus WebStart and Abacus
WebConnect. These integrated solutions will enable more than
20,000 travel
agencieslocated across Asia Pacific to have an online
presence and transaction capability in one easy step.
The
online travel market in the Asia Pacific is projected to see
double-digit growth through 2012, remaining the fastest-growing
travel region globally through 2013, when it is expected to reach
US$357 billion*. According to the recent PayPal Online and Mobile
Shopping Insights study, travel was the number one category for
online purchases accounting for
S$263 million in Singapore**.
Abacus
WebStart is a full-featured, ready-to-go online booking engine
specifically built for travel agencies to get their brand
online quickly, at near zero cost. Abacus WebConnect is a tool kit
that enables travel suppliers to build and deliver a robust booking
engine that lets their customers shop and book their
travel online anytime, anywhere. PayPal’s integration with these
online solutions provides travel companies the ability to make travel
transactions from day one, especially to the large pool of existing
PayPal customers, encompassing more than 113 million active users
across 190 markets globally.
Robert
Bailey, President and CEO of Abacus International said, “Consumers
today are making more travel bookings
online and travel agencies want to gain
a competitive advantage in addressing this trend. By integrating
PayPal into Abacus WebStart and Abacus WebConnect, travel
agencies can now look forward to an effective platform to start
anonline
business with the added benefit of being
transaction-ready. In addition, a strong global brand like PayPal is
a real boon to travel agencies as it instills a
certain level of
confidence and trust to global travellers who may be initially wary
of purchasing travel
packages or flight tickets from unknown travel
agency websites."
"With
e-commerce and the online travel market growing rapidly in Asia,
PayPal is committed to enabling easier, more flexible and more secure
payments to help travel agencies expand
their business online and be paid for travel bookings by millions of
consumers worldwide. By working with Abacus, travel
agencies will be able to boost their online sales by offering a
simpler, more convenient shopping experience to book and
pay for their online travel,” said Faraz Ahmed, Head, PayPal
Southeast Asia and India.
Singapore travel
agency, Maple Travel was the first to innovatively use Abacus
WebStart and PayPal in July to enable direct bookings for TransAsia
Airways flight tickets via Facebook. This functionality allows
Facebook users in Singapore to book and pay for their
flights to Taiwan on TransAsia Airways through a “book on
Facebook” tab within Facebook on TransAsia Airways’ Singapore fan
page, removing the need to navigate to TransAsia Airways’ website.
Tan
Meng Aun, Director, Maple Travel Pte Ltd said, “Facebook was the
first of several new and unique channels that we have earmarked as
high-potential growth segments for the regional travel industry.
Having successfully leveraged on the technologically advanced Abacus
WebStart engine and its seamless integration with PayPal’s online
payment solution, Maple Travel is now laying the
groundwork to pave the way for future up-and-coming online travel
innovations.”
*
PhoCusWright’s Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition
**PayPal
Online and Mobile Shopping Insights survey in 2012