Express Kenya signs exclusive deal with Amadeus

EXPRESS KENYA SIGNS EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH AMADEUS

Global travel technology giant Amadeus has yesterday signed a long term deal with one of Kenya’s leading travel companies, Express Travel, for the exclusive use in their organization to provide content and facilitate transactions.

Express had for the last two years running been voted as Kenya’s best travel company by the Kenya Tourism Awards but has of course been in the business for decades, building a large customer base, in part aided by representing American Express, operating 6 offices across Kenya and providing a 24 / 7 service to clients in need for immediate assistance, from within Kenya or when abroad.

Richard Markham, CEO of the Express Travel Group, said on the occasion of signing the deal: ‘We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Amadeus. Using Amadeus technology, we can continue to broaden our industry presence while maintaining distinct customer service tailored to the local and international markets we serve.

This partnership gives Express Travel Group a sustainable long-term competitive advantage in our endeavours to provide exemplary, personalized, cost effective services to our customers, through a higher level of automation from back to front office, a reliable IT infrastructure, better reporting and a faster and more accurate booking process. Amadeus is already the technology partner of choice for many American Express offices around the world. As the exclusive American Express Representative in Kenya Express Travel Group will continue to make changes for the maximum benefit of their clients’.

Amadeus’ regional General Manager Juan Torres added: ‘Over the last few months Amadeus has worked closely with travel agencies to identify missed opportunities that would allow them to increase their level of service to customers and drive the profitable growth of its business. This means changing the conventional way of looking at business as we ask ourselves, what would we do if we were starting anew? Amadeus is focusing on technology and thinking in terms of the total solution customers seek, even if that is to take our customers beyond their traditional offerings, marrying technology and solutions with customers is the challenge we are faced with. Our long-standing investments in technology and solutions and the way we approach business is a testimonial of our efforts to help our customers drive efficiencies and maximize opportunities within their own operations, and to fuel our development and innovation efforts. This will confirm Amadeus as the partner of choice for the travel agency of the future’.

Amadeus has in recent years made significant gains in market share across Eastern Africa and in particular in the hardly contested Ugandan market, which was rife with monopolistic tendencies by the local Galileo representatives, created a viable alternative, now widely used in the distribution and processing of travel arrangements. Watch this space for regular and breaking news from Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands.