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Abacus, Asia’s leading provider of travel solutions and services, and MSN announced a new hub of travel information and products to be made available to customers via a ‘MSN-Abacus Travel Channel’. The site introduces a number of leading travel agencies such as Lion Travel and Set Tour to provide a product-searching and price-comparing function through the online travel platform innovated in Taiwan. Further, the alliance will enable consumers to compare various prices offerings by various travel agencies and enjoy a one-stop shopping experiences. The site is laden with detailed and professional image-rich travel reviews, and will soon issue in-depth reports on theme-specific destinations and itinerary recommendations from home and abroad.
Mr. Zhu Huiyong, General Manager of Microsoft Online Services (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Division), says based on the demands of consumers, MSN will once again rock the market amid its non-stop pursuit of innovation.
“MSN’s provision of the new Travel Channel is taking place at exactly critical timing when internet application and technology is mature. By taking advantage of quality information, innovative travel booking technology, over 80% of travel market share enjoyed by Abacus, and MSN’s advantage in internet content and social networking, the Travel Channel will definitely provide a perfect match between travel service consumers and travel service operators,” Mr. Huiyong said.
As a service provider to more than 20,000 travel agencies in 24 countries, Mr. Wu Wenguo, Chairman of Abacus (Taiwan) says Abacus (Taiwan) is well-placed to lead the market on the technology aspect. “What MSN is bringing to the website is equally important – they have the advantage in branding, internet traffic and precise-targeting users in its robust social networking with more than 10 million users. MSN is therefore the best collaboration partner to reach the consumer markets,” Mr. Wenguo said.
Easy One-time Searching to Turn Consumers into Loyal Customers MSN Travel Channel differentiates itself from other travel websites and portal websites by providing a strong and precise cross-brand travel product searching mechanism. Travel operators may transfer its travel product information, such as itinerary and price, to Abacus information database by way of real-time information exchange. Meanwhile, consumers may search and conduct comparisons of travel products, for example overseas airfares, hotels, tour package, airfares and hotel individual travel package by way of MSN searching tool to identify the best travel arrangement. Consumers may purchase the products online immediately after confirmation of itinerary to enjoy the convenience of one-stop shopping.
A number of leading domestic travel agencies, including Liontravel, Lifetour, Settour, Richmond Tours, Appletour, Friendship Tour, Galilee, Gloriatour, Artisan, Leonpkg, Abctravel and EZHOTEL have participated in the website, with more to participate in the future to provide consumers with more choices.
MSN-Abacus Travel Channel Features Great Food and Leisure
MSN-Abacus Travel Channel also features its customer-centred itinerary recommendations and provides regular travel information updates in collaboration with Taipei Travel-Web. Moving forward, they also plan to issue special editions on theme-based travel report and topic of the month, in order to lead the consumers to travel around the world by such content-rich and imagerich information. The Channel collaborates with famous travel-gastronomy bloggers to provide Guru’s Trail to lead the consumers to follow the trails of the travelgastronomy guru to feel the local sensations and taste the traditional food from every part of China.
In addition, MSN-Abacus Travel Channel have designed a ‘Hot Itinerary’ especially for rover travellers who have no specified destination to provide travel product and itinerary plan with the highest hit rates by consumers. Information Service Station will even help consumers make the most-matching travel plan in accordance with their zodiac sign and tarot analysis.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
