GTA, a leading global travel wholesaler, has unveiled its first ever mobile tool to make life easier for the world’s travel agents and provide them with new revenue opportunities at the ongoing World Travel Market event.

Emutrip, wh will start life as a free itinerary builder but will evolve over time into a sophisticated tool for travellers, accessible in store, at home and on the move, said a statement.

Ivan Walter, chief executive, said: “GTA has always been at the forefront of travel industry technology and is spurred on by increasing invention and competition coming into the market. I’m excited to announce emutrip which will add value for travellers and build awareness of agents’ brand and expertise.”

Retail travel agents can use the free emutrip to create, build, edit and organise their clients’ travel itineraries.

Emutrip will quickly and simply automate the process of building a dynamically packaged trip and presents it in a way that is as appealing as the traditional holiday brochure but can be as individual as the traveller.

It will free agents to devote more time to understanding the particular needs of their customers and providing relevant recommendations and reassurance, said the statement.

As GTA continues to focus on doing business with travel businesses not consumers, each itinerary can be created using the agency’s own brand.

The agents build elements of the itinerary day-by-day – from flights to rail travel, accommodation to activities – drawing on content from GTA’s extensive database and elsewhere.

Each itinerary will be easy to edit with notes, reminders and additions as travellers take advantage of agents’ recommendations for excursions, sightseeing and attraction options, theatre tickets and more.

Made to be mobile, travellers can download the emutrip app from the App Store and Google Play so they can view their itinerary on smartphones and tablets. Agents can also email the itinerary for travellers to read on their desktop computers or print out to carry with them.

“As we celebrate our 40-year legacy and with millions invested in innovation to drive our business forward, 2015 will be the beginning of an exciting new era for GTA. The expertise and experience of our people, our authoritative presence in ‘hot spot’ and rising destinations and source markets, and our market-leading performance through technology solutions will benefit our customers for decades to come,” said Walter.

Emutrip is the first in a series of innovations to demonstrate GTA’s ability to ‘power global travel’ and help the travel and tourism industry welcome more customers. Although initially only available in English, other languages will follow throughout next year, said the statement.

It will eventually evolve into an ‘all-in-one’ sales tool for travel agents that will connect to third party content such as local weather and news, promote special offers, room upgrades, transfers or destination services while travellers are on their trip, and enable travellers to book direct through their smartphone or tablet, it added. - TradeArabia News Service