Amadeus Holds Regional Conference in Athens

Amadeus executives who met in Athens last month to discuss future strategies for the company said that Greece shows a huge potential for Amadeus and it will therefore reinforce its interest in the area.

Arlene Coyle, regional unit manager for Central, East and Southern Europe, said that Greece is one of five countries in her area with the highest growth potential as the company has less than 50% of the country’s market share but in other areas the market share for Amadeus reaches 75%.

Roberto Copello, general manager of Amadeus Hellas, said that his company now has 600 locations and 1,500 terminals and that growth continues at a record pace. Recently, he said, eight of Greece’s bigger travel agencies turned to technically advanced Amadeus.

“These companies, which account for some 400,000 annually bookings, or 4% of the total market, changed over to our system at almost the same time,” said Mr. Copello, “and we were able to handle the changeover very smoothly and without any hitches.”

Roberto Copello, general manager of Amadeus Hellas; Arlene Coyle, regional unit manager for Central, East and Southern Europe and Juan Antonio Carrasco, regional manager for Central, East and Southern Europe immediately after the recent Amadeus meeting in Athens of its international executives.

To keep up the record growth, Juan Antonio Carrasco, regional manager for Central, East and Southern Europe, said that Amadeus would introduce new products for Greece, which gives more value for customers and an avenue for revenue diversification for Amadeus.

Mr. Carrasco mentioned impressive IT solutions for airlines – 150 airlines use Amadeus’ Altea Sell as the sales and reservation system in their offices – and for hotels, similar to system adopted by the Louis hotel group recently.

But most of the company’s revenue, he said, comes from its core GDS business, which accounts for 85% of all revenue. All other Amadeus business solutions, including off-the-shelf and customized systems for travel agencies simply gives our customers more value, he said.

Mr. Copello added that besides the products, the local company offers customers unparalleled service. “At Amadeus, making technology work for customers is our business. We provide the technology services and solutions they need to become leaders in the world’s largest, and fastest moving industry.

“From distribution and connectivity to advanced e-commerce and management applications, we use technology to expand possibilities for any organization that sells, buys or provides travel services.”

Mr. Carrasco added that new technologies are transforming the travel and tourism industries, while the Internet is revolutionizing travel distribution. With innovation coming from every quarter, Amadeus partners with technology and applications leaders across the world to keep our customers at the forefront of change.

“We continuously invest heavily in our core network – over 90 million Euros in the last two years to maintain and strengthen Amanet as the platform for the world’s most advanced, effective and reliable distribution service,” he said. “From now until 2007 Amadeus will invest EUR 1,000 million in product development.”