Editor: Daisy Melwani
The industry's most reliable source
Saturday, 11 September 2010

The Pearl of Australia's North West
Nestled in the North West Corner of Australia and hinting a slight Asian influence the once pearling town of Broome is now a popular tourist attraction where red soiled earth meets the clear blue sea.

Crown Towers, Melbourne
Over the last decade the Crown complex has become a staple in the Melbourne hospitality scene, but with the recent riverside renovations, the complex has changed the look and feel of Southbank.

Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne
Australia's conference and exhibition scene has a new shining star with the recent launch of the purpose-built Crown Conference Centre in Melbourne's Southbank precinct.






 
   

Belgian-based content and technology specialist Gateway has enhanced its  popular Gateway 2 Travel hotel booking engine with upgraded map search functionality, an XML service for maximum flexibility, and additional hotel suppliers that expand its inventory to 120,000 properties worldwide.

Designed by travel professionals for travel professionals who want the most hotel choice and best net rates in one place, Gateway 2 Travel was launched at last year’s Travel Technology Show as a free and  easy-to-use solution for agents and operators wanting access to extensive hotel content.

Available in B2B and B2C configurations (with the latter available as a standalone solution or a flexible XML option), Gateway 2 Travel is now being used by nearly 2,000 travel agents and tour operators worldwide. They value its growing content and consistent best net prices that let them set their own mark up and create their own cancellation rules. A booking can be completed in as few as four clicks.

Gateway 2 Travel has added several more hotel suppliers to its content database which now offers around 120,000 hotels worldwide.  Ranging from budget to five star, the properties available are offered by more than 15 reputable hotel suppliers, such as Tourico, Jacobs, Hotelbeds, GTA and Youtravel, as well as by country, regional and luxury specialists (for example, by star grading, by geography, such as islands, or by theme, such as historic cities).

New MapSearch and XML enhancements
With Gateway 2 Travel’s new MapSearch upgrade, the agent or operator merely has to type in a city name to generate a map showing hotel locations. Booking options can be further refined by using a range of filters, such as price, star rating or accommodation type, a defined point of interest (such as The Louvre in Paris), or a specific hotel name or street.

Gateway’s XML service has been developed to provide maximum flexibility for agents and tour operators with their own B2C booking engine, and who want to enhance their hotel offer as a way of attracting and keeping volume customers.

Gateway 2 Travel’s single XML interface means that agents and operators don’t have to build multiple XML interfaces to a range of different hotel suppliers.  The user merely has to build his own single interface to stream Gateway’s data seamlessly to his own booking engine. The user can present Gateway 2 Travel hotel content, availability and net prices that are tailored specifically to his own needs and delivered through his own interface.

Gateway’s Fare Database Management Services
Gateway is European market leader in providing outsourced airfare database management services for travel businesses such as agencies, operators, consolidators and airlines. Its services include a popular ATPCO private fare filing service for airlines operating in Europe, as well as a B2B or B2C flight engine for booking published, negotiated, low cost and charter fares, and a car booking engine, with multiple suppliers, which can complete bookings in just three easy steps.