All Players Will Take Their Place Online – Resort Magazine – May 2014 Issue
"City hotels and boutique hotels still take a larger share in online reservations, but considering the growth rate of the market, we can say that all players in the tourism industry will be present online," said Hoteladvisor.net.
Talya Bilişim, which offers the Hoteladvisor.net booking engine and Hoteladvisor.net Travel Portal to the tourism industry, has been a solution partner for the sector for many years, providing both products and services. Talya Bilişim General Coordinator Nilüfer Durukal answered RESORT Magazine’s questions regarding online travel.
How do you evaluate the online travel market in Turkey?
Until just a few years ago, the online travel market in Turkey mainly consisted of e-ticket sales and room sales in city hotels by international chains. The main reasons hotels couldn’t get a share from this market were the accommodation industry’s offline operation and existing agreements with traditional travel agencies. The advancement of internet technologies, decreasing costs, and increased mobile usage have allowed more hotels to join the system while also offering travelers more time and flexibility.
Now, hotels can adjust prices simultaneously on both their own websites and leading global sales channels, using their room inventory more efficiently. They can also sell dynamic packages that include flights and transfers through their websites.
City hotels and boutique hotels are still much more active in online reservations and have a larger market share. However, considering the market’s growth rate, we can say that all players in the tourism industry will be online very soon.
What services do you offer in online travel as Talya Bilişim?
Under the Hoteladvisor.net brand, we offer two different products for the online travel market. The first is the Hoteladvisor.net booking engine, which allows hotels to promote themselves and make sales online. The second is the Hoteladvisor.net Travel Portal, which enables agencies to manage all their operations online.
The Hoteladvisor.net booking engine allows hotels to sell directly through their own website, accept online payments, and send real-time data to all global sales channels. Additionally, with integrations like Facebook plugins and Foursquare, it enables hotels to use social media as a sales channel.
Hotels can publish real-time availability and pricing on channels like Booking.com and Expedia without needing to allocate fixed inventory. Hoteladvisor.net is also live-integrated with Elektra, the most widely used hotel management software in Turkey. This allows reservations made through a hotel’s website or online channels to be automatically entered into the front office system. Since no manual entry is required, the risk of overbooking is eliminated, and room inventory is utilized more efficiently. In short, with the Hoteladvisor.net travel portal, agencies gain the infrastructure to work both B2B and B2C.
How do you evaluate the impact of developing mobile technologies and social media on the travel industry?
The travel industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in e-commerce, and mobile usage and social media further accelerate this growth. Today’s consumers want to quickly access detailed information, easily compare many alternatives, and make informed decisions based on past experiences.
Social media plays a key role in all of these. It’s no longer just a promotional space for hotels — it also generates revenue. Optimizing hotel websites for mobile devices has become crucial due to the rise in mobile usage. At Hoteladvisor.net, we go one step further: we enable guests to make à la carte restaurant reservations from mobile devices or complete satisfaction surveys about their stay via their phones.
Does Talya Bilişim have any new investment plans?
Last year, we entered the online market with Elektra Cloud Hotel System, developed as a co-branded product with Microsoft. This was Microsoft’s first hospitality-specific solution. Our goal is to ensure that hotels use a system that stays continuously connected with and exchanges information with global online platforms.
Accordingly, we signed cooperation agreements with major distributors such as Amadeus, Booking, Expedia, Car Trawler, Excursopedia, and TripAdvisor. Our integration discussions with Sabre, the company that first developed the GDS system, are ongoing. Our goal is to allow all hotels — especially the 2,000 using Elektra — to benefit from this technology.
What are your 2014 expectations and targets, and do you have any new products?
2013 was filled with intense and positive developments. In December 2013, we launched www.medicaltourism.com.tr using Hoteladvisor.net’s infrastructure, a portal serving health tourism. Through this portal, hospitals involved in health tourism can present their services, quality certificates, and doctor specialties, and also manage the private insurance processes of incoming patients using the system.
Nilüfer Durukal
General Coordinator, Talya Bilişim
