Singapore’s Travel Trade Priming Up for E-Commerce

The travel trade in Singapore will get a shot in the arm when its industry association implements a virtual mall in the next
quarter.

The National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas) will implement Singapore’s first online,
real-time e-commerce service in October. The service
will be available on both the Internet and SingaporeONE, the
country’s emerging multimedia broadband network.

To be called the Natas Virtual Travel Mall, the e-commerce
service will not only attempt to increase the sales of travel
agents in the extremely competitive domestic marketplace but also
help them lower operating costs, the association said.

The first phase will enable Internet users to search for
vacations according to their budgets, travel times, destinations
and type of packages. To enable this phase to be successful, Natas
plans to get as many agents as possible to promote their travel packages on the Internet.

The hits on the various packages will be linked to the
respective Web sites of travel agents, Natas said.

The second phase will enable users to make online
bookings as the system network will be linked to Abacus Computerized
Reservation System.

Users will also be able to pay for their travel
plans via the Internet, which will be the highlight of the virtual
mall as many similar sites lack the latter capability.

In implementing the deal, Natas said it has signed up with
Microsoft Singapore to develop the software aspects of the mall
together with developer Aretae Interactive.

Natas is also working statutory agencies like the National
Computer Board
(NCB) to implement a cost-effective
project for travel agents.

Now, Natas is funding the project
internally and is studying the possibility of getting help from
NCB, which is responsible for the computerization of the public
service.

Natas represents about 360 members here and these include
travel agents, hotels and airlines.

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