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Abacus, Asia’s leading provider of travel solutions and services, announced a new partnership with ACE Travel Insurance to distribute its insurance products to all Abacus-connected travel agents across the Asia region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand as a first phase.
Travel agents can access the content via Abacus’ fully-integrated travel insurance booking solution, Abacus TravelSecure, which allows the processing of travel insurance transactions electronically within the same Passenger Name Record (PNR). These insurance products will be available to other Asia Pacific markets in the second phase of the roll out.
Speaking at the ACE product launch in Malaysia, Mr. Brett Henry, Vice President Marketing, Abacus International, said Abacus was delighted to have another quality provider available in its system.
“By enhancing the quality and variety of travel insurance products in Abacus’ distribution system, travel agents will be able to offer more choices to their customers. Concurrently, we are also helping travel agencies increase their revenue opportunities by maximising the travel insurance sales options to their customers.”
Mr. David Fedarb, ACE Regional Head of Travel Insurance for Southeast Asia, said the company was delighted to partner with Abacus in order to provide the Asian travel agency market with access to its products.
“We are committed to providing excellent service and support to our travel agency partners, with a view to helping them increase the revenue they can earn from selling travel insurance. Our teams across Asia are focused on providing travel agencies with the tools, training and knowledge they need to sell effectively. Abacus, with its extensive breadth in the travel agency market, will play a key role in our ability to deliver.”
Non-air income – that is, sales derived from hotel and car bookings as well as insurance –could account for over 50% of a travel agent’s income in Singapore and Hong Kong, according to Abacus booking data. It does vary between travel agencies across the region with a lower uptake in other Asia Pacific markets.
Mr. Henry said that these markets were catching up. “Abacus is experiencing rapid growth in its insurance category with an average of 14% year-on-year growth in bookings. Of the five markets, Vietnam is in the lead posting at least a 20% month-on-month increase. With the new ACE Travel Insurance content, we are forecasting a 20% increase in insurance bookings on top of the current bookings, across these five markets,” added Mr. Henry.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
