Emirates Holidays chatbot to boost tr
Harry Kemble
harry.kemble@
travelweekly.co.uk
Emirates Holidays is developing a chatbot for its UK agent website that can answer queries and refer bookings to its call centre.
The operator, which sells about 20% through the trade, is testing artificial intelligence technology, which it hopes to launch in the next two months. The female chatbot, developed
by Active OMG, has been trialled on Emirates Holidays’ consumer website for five months and operates 24 hours a day. Emirates Holidays hopes the use
of artificial intelligence will help make the enquiry and booking process quicker. The tool will also be able to connect a member of Emirates Holidays’ contact centre team with agents by phone, live chat or email. Niel Alobaidi, Emirates Holidays’ managing director, said the technology was part of a push to widen its trade distribution. The operator specialises in
holidays to Dubai, which accounts for 70% of sales, the Indian Ocean and southeast Asia. The operator plans to diversify
First Class Holidays shakes up team to ‘help service trade’
First Class Holidays has appointed an account manager to look after its top-selling agents and is recruiting for several other new roles as part of a broader shake-up under new managing director Dan Gathercole.
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travelweekly.co.uk 28 June 2018
“It is about getting back to basics. It is all about that very personal, grass-roots relationship”
by introducing India, China and New Zealand by the end of the year. It currently works with about 50
core agents that account for 40% of its trade sales. “Before I joined the company
[in 2015], trade relationships had gone a bit south,” Alobaidi said. “It was going a bit OTA-ish. It
Training and development manager Paula Martin, who has been with the long-haul specialist for 18 years, has been promoted to key account manager, starting on July 1. She will look after top agent sellers in a revamp of First Class Holidays’ key partner scheme. A new marketing manager role has also been created to run a marketing team of four, while the operator is recruiting for a pay-per-click executive, another
PICTURE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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