Travelport x Fora: A Tech-Enabled Partnership

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Fora Author Fora Travel

The Modern Travel Agency

Fora Travel

    Fora's mission is to power the next generation of travel advisors. One pillar of that mission is technology — in particular, an end-to-end booking platform that frees our advisors from unnecessary logistical friction. With less time spent using outdated tools, Fora Advisors can focus on what they do best: booking amazing trips and sharing their well-honed expertise.

    Fora has partnered with Travelport, a global travel-retail platform that powers our own booking platform. Travelport, like Fora, values efficiency, thoughtful disruption and, of course, technology's unique ability to usher in change. Our co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer Jake Peters recently sat down with Maurita Baker, Travelport's Vice President and Managing Director, North America. Follow along below for a recap of their conversation.

    Travelport x Fora

    Jake Peters: Many people have heard of the “GDS,” but don’t know exactly what role it plays in the travel-technology landscape. When someone asks you what Travelport does and what the GDS is, how do you answer them?

    Maurita Baker: Travelport is a global distribution system (GDS) that powers bookings for hundreds of thousands of travel suppliers worldwide, which include airlines, hotels, rail and car-rental companies. We do this by connecting buyers and sellers of travel through our next-generation marketplace, Travelport+. As a GDS, Travelport is committed to being the best travel-content aggregator in the industry and delivering the broadest range of retail-ready travel offers for agencies and their customers, so that agents can operate as modern retailers of travel.

    JP: How do you see the role of the GDS evolving in the hotel-retailing space?

    MB: At Travelport, we’re all in on modernizing hotel retailing, and we continue to innovate ways to normalize and optimize content for both our hotel suppliers and agencies, all through the lens of the end-traveler. This is how we help our customers help their customers. Our technology is continually evolving to make it easy for agents and advisors to quickly search, compare and book hotel rooms that fit their travelers’ unique needs and preferences, while maximizing their revenue all in one place.

    JP: As we at Fora are more focused on the travel advisor side of the integration with Travelport, I’m curious what Travelport’s hotel partners are asking for in terms of requests, innovations or other solutions?

    MB: We know hotels are already great at selling rooms and additional services in the direct channel — our mission is to support them in the indirect channel, too. Our hotel partners are currently looking to us to support them in expanding their loyalty programs and growing their loyalty customer base, and so we are exploring ways that we can better support dynamic loyalty-based pricing for agency retailers. They are also focused on better retailing from a product perspective, and so we are providing them ways to better control how their product content is presented through indirect retailing channels. This will make it easier for agents and advisors to “stock their virtual shelves” with the most accurate, updated property details, descriptive content and enhanced images and visuals. Additionally, our hotel partners are looking for innovation in payment solutions via GDS (i.e., prepaid options to be able to serve markets where paying in advance is common) and data-driven insights to support growth initiatives.

    JP: How do you see Travelport differentiating itself from GDS competitors? What’s Travelport’s key advantage?

    MB: Travelport is the only GDS that is 100% focused on agencies. We are leading the industry by investing in the development and delivery of tools and capabilities that agents and advisors need to operate as modern retailers and deliver seamless experiences for travelers. As an example, this year we débuted Travelport’s Content Curation Layer (CCL), which is an AI-powered technology layer that simplifies the delivery of retail-ready content to the agency and end-traveler. Travelport CCL ensures travel agencies only need one search platform to deliver the right range of normalized, enriched and accurate content choice from any source to their travelers, at speed. It is this level of personalization, elevated by rich, robust data sets and AI-based search that is helping advisors identify the best offers and recommend the best trip options to their travelers.

    One of the key features of Travelport CCL is the Content Optimizer, a new Travelport+ product that offers agency customers greater control over all content types. With the ability to apply agency-specific rules, agents and advisors can use Content Optimizer to tailor search options and results, enhance revenue optimization and mitigate “choice overload.” More information about Travelport’s CCL and Content Optimizer enhancements can be found at travelport.com/plus/ai-powered-search-controls.

    We also invest in consumer research to uncover critical insights for our customers. Our research helps us to help our partners and customers address existing industry challenges with legacy processes that are deteriorating end-traveler experiences. In our 2024 State of Modern Retailing Report, which highlights insights across the countries surveyed, the global takeaway is that travel providers that prioritize partnerships with travel agencies will be able to deliver a truly personalized service to their shared customer: the end-traveler. The full report can be found at travelport.com/difficult-to-compare.

    And finally, Travelport’s people are truly differentiated. At our core is the flexibility and dedication to anticipate and meet the needs of our partners while always keeping their success at the heart of everything we do.

    JP: What excites you about Travelport’s roadmap over the next two to three years?

    MB: Given the complexity of shopping for travel today with the need to search for each part of the journey, book and manage a trip in a fragmented way what excites me is the simplification and automation we are delivering for buyers to be able to do all of this easily, and in one place. We believe travel agencies, like Fora and its advisors, are best placed to offer a modern retailing experience for customers because they have all the available choices under their umbrella: flights, transit, lodging, packages and more. And in the world of GDSs, it is our role over the next three to five years to help agencies (a) effectively access and manage supply from multiple sources and (b) improve search and booking experiences for advisors and travelers with a faster, more accurate response.

    There are very few travel retailers or agencies that can deal with the complexity of dozens (or even hundreds) of simultaneous (API) connections, sort through the plethora of options available and assemble the best possible itinerary. That is why we’re applying more technology capabilities like AI and machine-learning to evolve our solutions and introduce new products that are making travel offers or content from various suppliers easy for agencies and their advisors to consume, understand, compare, book and service.

    JP: Outside of Travelport, is there anything you are excited about on the horizon in the travel, travel-technology industry or hotel-booking space? Anything that’s surprising you about current trends?

    MB: I am excited to see that purposeful and sustainable travel is emerging as a key influencing factor in travel decisions promotion of less crowded destinations, modal switches, immersive travel that embraces local culture and experiences. We believe that travel and tourism is a powerful force for good in the world. It connects people and places, opens hearts and minds and shifts perspectives. However, we need to ensure we are promoting sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism can mean many things: investing in local communities by creating jobs and driving economic value, protecting natural environments and wildlife resources, preserving Indigenous cultures and so much more. We are constantly looking for new ways to not only support the environment but to be a leader in sustainable travel.

    JP: How does Travelport feel about powering the booking platform for Fora travel advisors?

    MB: First and foremost, we are grateful for our partnership and the opportunity to power your booking platform. At Travelport, we recognize the value that travel agents and advisors deliver by creating seamless, personalized experiences consumers look for when planning and booking their trips. As a pioneer of modern travel retailing, like Fora, we are also changing the travel industry model by focusing on advisors and the end-traveler experience above all else. That is why we are both proud and honored to partner with an industry disruptor like Fora that is making it easy for anyone from experienced advisors to new talent to thrive in the travel-retailing sector with a modern approach.

    JP: Is there anything you want Fora Advisors to know?

    MB: I would like each advisor at Fora to know that their success is paramount to us. We have their best interests in mind. We are eager to grow and evolve with them. Our system is very powerful with a lot of capability to make their roles easier. We encourage ongoing training and dialogue to ensure that each advisor ascertains the best value and experience with Travelport’s content and capabilities.

    JP: Switching gears to more personal travel-related questions, since we are so focused on hotels here at Fora, I have to start by asking this question we ask everyone: What are three of your favorite hotels?

    MB: Anse Chastanet, St. Lucia (the owners' villa at the very top of the mountain / hill); Etéreo, Auberge Resorts Collection, in Playa del Carmen and Le Germain Hotel Toronto Mercer.

    JP: Oh…I have never been to these hotels so I’m glad I asked. What’s on your travel wish list these days? Any specific places or hotels you are to visit?

    MB: An African safari and The St. Regis Bora Bora.

    JP: Both of those sound fantastic trips. Any new travel equipment or gadgets you are traveling with?

    MB: The Trtl Travel Pillow for overnight flights when I have to sit in economy. It’s quite fantastic.

    JP: I have yet to find a travel pillow that I like, so I will check this out. I understand you are an avid pickleball player, which opens the door to so many questions. How much of your upcoming travel is centered on pickleball and where should someone who is looking to plan a pickleball vacation go?

    MB: I definitely look for pickleball wherever I go. However, I find it’s still not an amenity at most destinations. I’ve been lucky in that three recent trips just this quarter had me playing PB at the resorts I stayed. I recently stayed at the Rosewood Mayakoba and was able to play PB on their (fabulous) courts. In Phoenix, I stayed at and played on the beautiful courts at the Marriott Desert Ridge. I was also recently at the Nobu Hotel in Cabo and was able to play on their courts. They weren’t great courts but just being able to play was amazing. If someone’s looking for a vacation where PB is a must, I want to meet them. But seriously, if looking for PB, I would suggest the Rosewood Mayakoba or a resort in Arizona, as PB is prevalent in that state.

    JP: Thanks for your time. Looking forward to continuing to build together in 2025!

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