May 19, 2009
Robert Bailey, President and CEO, Abacus International
Robert Bailey, President and CEO, Abacus International brings a range of experience in general management, senior strategy, business development and marketing roles in the travel industry.
Robert’s career in travel distribution includes a variety of roles with leading travel companies like Galileo International; a Europe based Global Distribution System (GDS) now part of Travelport Europe; Traviswiss, the market leader in travel distribution owned by Swissair and SITA a leading global telecommunications and IT services organisation serving the airline, travel and transportation sectors.
Robert is a graduate from the University of Cambridge and holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.
A British national, Robert has a long-term connection with the Asia Pacific region having spent his childhood in Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, as well as frequently working in Asia as part of his global responsibilities in earlier roles.
Robert Bailey, President and CEO, Abacus International, Singapore, speaks to ACEXC.
“Abacus places a huge commitment in understanding the Asia Pacific’s market, whether it’s in terms of developing tailored innovation or having in-depth understanding of the varying local markets. To date, over S$100 million has been invested in enhancing and developing solutions for the Asia Pacific market. Born and bred in Asia, and with over 100 sales offices in the 25 markets in Asia that we serve, we understand the uniqueness of the Asia Pacific travel industry.” Robert Bailey, President and CEO, Abacus International
ACEXC: As a leading travel facilitator in the Asian region, what is your sustainable competitive advantage?
Robert Bailey:
a) Abacus has over 20 years of experience in Asia Pacific’s travel industry and is an industry leader which has provided in-depth guidance on travel trends to the region’s travel market.
Since the SARs period, Abacus shares with the industry a regular commentary and trend analysis where the opportunities and challenges of the industry are highlighted. Our bi-monthly release – Abacus Travel Insights provide these insights to our travel partners.
b) Abacus has an extensive and close working partnership with key players in the various travel sectors. Our network comprises of 15,000 Abacus-connected travel agencies, more than 450 airlines, 81,000 hotels as well as other travel partners such as car rentals and insurance.
With this, we are able to work with our travel partners - the airlines and hotels to offer attractive deals which the travel agents can in turn offer to their customers. For example, we have recently waived subscription fees waiver Abacus FareX and are in the midst of rolling out a series of attractive hotel promotions.
c) Abacus places a huge commitment in understanding the Asia Pacific’s market, whether it’s in terms of developing tailored innovation or having in-depth understanding of the varying local markets. To date, over S$100 million has been invested in enhancing and developing solutions for the Asia Pacific market. Born and bred in Asia, and with over 100 sales offices in the 25 markets in Asia that we serve, we understand the uniqueness of the Asia Pacific travel industry.
ACEXC: Abacus has its presence in two of the important Asian markets: India and China. What are the similarities and dissimilarities of these two markets?
Robert Bailey:
Similarities: Both markets have large domestic travel bases. Although both markets have lower internet penetration than other countries, mobile usage is the highest for these two markets compared to the rest of APAC.
Differences: China is more regulated than India in many aspects. For example, India’s airline space is not as regulated as that in China, thus the LCC market flourishes at a faster pace in India. Airport infrastructure in India, on the other hand, is not as developed as that in China. Credit card penetration is also at a higher rate in China.
ACEXC: What are the opportunities and risks you foresee in the current economic crisis and global meltdown? How do you plan to take advantage of opportunities and mitigate risks in the current scenario?
Robert Bailey:
As with any economic crisis, many risks and opportunities emerge in the challenging market. I would rather focus on the opportunities and use them to grow the organisation. Finding ways to strengthen the relationships with customers – both from the demand and the supply side have become even more important in the current environment.
In addition to launching joint promotions with our suppliers, we are introducing new service concepts and specific technology to help increase their market competitiveness.
One of these programmes is the launch of airlines branded fares to our travel agencies. Under branded fares, air fares are grouped into various fare families with associated attributes. These fares allow airlines to upsell and differentiate their products. Ancillary products such as extra baggage allowance and pre-reserved seats are also offered under this programme.
Through this fare programme, airlines are able to sell their seats more effectively as the chances of upselling by travel agents are increased. Potential sales returns are in turn increased.
The need to improve productivity has become a top concern with travel agencies as a survey we conducted late last year showed. We had since rolled out several solutions such as Abacus PowerSuite, a front and mid-back office solution that automates a full range of travel agency’s operations.
The current tight economic situation has also shown that building trusting and long-term relationships are key to any businesses. We have introduced Abacus ClientBase, a CRM tool developed by travel agents for travel agents to help them build customer data and analyse their profiles and purchase habits. This deeper understanding of their customers would help agencies to foster closer relationships with their customers and develop marketing plans tailored to their needs.
There are numerous opportunities in the internet arena as people scour the net for the cheapest and most attractive deals. To help agents tap on the opportunities on the world - wide - web, we have launched Abacus WebConnect, Abacus WebStart and Abacus WebCreate to give agencies of any size the opportunity to capitalise on the potential business returns from the internet.
It is also a time for companies to re-train and upgrade their employees’ skills. Abacus eServices, a self-service portal offers travel agents access to over 65 e-learning courses.
ACEXC: Abacus International has recently announced a twelve month subscription fee waiver for Abacus Fare X solution. What has been the initial customer response to this offer?
Robert Bailey:
The response has been good. However, we are unable to release specific information as we are still in the process of making the fares available. To date, we have over 521 fare sources worldwide available on Abacus FareX.
ACEXC: Among the wide range of services and travel tools you offer, which is your most popular service? And why?
Robert Bailey:
Our leading solutions are Abacus FareX and Abacus Whiz. Abacus FareX is the leading net fares management and distribution solution in Asia Pacific, adopted by over 59 airlines across more than 86 cities and with more than 521 fare sources.
It enables the airlines to put an end to the hassle of dealing with cumbersome paperwork and enables faster time to market. For the agencies, Abacus FareX allows them to stay on top of the ever-changing picture of net fares.
Abacus Whiz, a windows-based system gives travel consultants easy access to the Abacus GDS system and other travel contents. Incorporated with powerful and user friendly features, it automates the travel booking process so that agents can react swiftly to fast changing market demands.
This leading point-of-sale solution sends out real-time promotion notifications through an automated fares communication channel and is available in multiple languages.
ACEXC: Abacus International has its presence in 25 markets across the Asia-Pacific region. Which are the top five markets that contribute to your business and profitability?
Robert Bailey:
The top markets for Abacus are the mature markets of North Asia as well as South Asia such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. We are also performing well in the IndoChina markets such as Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam and are growing our presence in Central Asia – Kazakhstan.
ACEXC: What are the broad future travel trends you foresee? And how would it impact you and your customers?
Robert Bailey:
Airlines are slowly but surely removing or reducing commissions to travel agents, and travel agents will have to actively look for ways to add value to their customers to account for a service charge. They have to make a conscious move to go beyond the ticket issuer role. It is one of our main priorities to ensure that we have the necessary products and deliver practical campaigns to help them evolve to this next level.
Many of the travel sectors have a solid customer database. It is time for the travel agency businesses to develop this in-depth understanding of their customers as it generates long-term returns. As mentioned above, Abacus ClientBase, a CRM solution is designed specially the travel agents and allows them to continuously strengthen their customer relationships.
Another trend that we have been seeing is the emergence of niche travel segments. More people around the world are travelling with a focused purpose such as religious, volunteerism and eco-tourism. The travel industry needs to cater to these specific groups of travellers. For example, Abacus FareX included seamen fares for the marine segment in Philippines recently and it received a good take-up.
There will be continued focus on cost management and efficiency as more companies will be turning to travel procurement agencies to help them maximise their travel budget. The travel procurement agencies or the travel management companies have the expertise to help these organisations police and manage their travel budget more efficiently.
Abacus International Pte Ltd, is the leading global distribution system in Asia Pacific with over 20 years of experience in the travel industry. The company distributes travel content from hundreds of travel suppliers including airlines and provides application development and data processing for airlines to Asia Pacific’s travel agents.
Abacus was established in 1988. Over the decades, Abacus has expanded its footprint to 25 markets and over 15,000 agency locations in Asia Pacific. Abacus International is owned by a consortium of Asia's leading airlines including All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Dragonair, Philippine Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines.
Abacus is also backed by US owned Sabre, both a partner and technology provider, best known for developing dynamic and innovative information technology solutions in the travel industry.
Having won TTG Asia’s ‘Best GDS’ Award for ten consecutive years since 1998 and the TravelWeekly Asia’s Best eCommerce and New Technology for 2007 and 2008, Abacus is consistently recognised for its leadership role in the industry.
