 |
| Source: Sabre. From left: Isolda Josy and Pranay Roy, Moments; Mendis from Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific; and Marco Angeles, Moments. |
A Singaporean team has won the 24-hour Destination Hack: Singapore, Sabre’s first Asia Pacific hackathon. Participants were challenged to conceptualise and create a new technology app that could reinvent travel – from the way it is shopped, sold and managed to how it is experienced.
The winning app, branded Moments, responds to a growing trend for ‘bleisure’ travel in APAC. It aims to help travel agents plan and book more personalised trips tailored for travellers combining business and leisure in the same itinerary.
The winning team was awarded US$10,000 which will go towards supporting future development of Moments. Isolda Josy, Marco Angeles, and Pranay Roy from Moments received their prize from Roshan Mendis, Senior VP, Sabre Travel Network Asia Pacific.
“We loved the idea of an app that addresses a very specific traveller group. A combination of socioeconomic factors and rapidly advancing technological enablement in this region is fuelling a rapid evolution in the way people travel, and we’re seeing a lot of new patterns and preferences emerging. It’s essential that travel businesses have the right technologies in place to adapt to these changing traveller demands,” commented Mendis.
Greg Schulze, Senior VP, Commercial Strategy and Services for Expedia, one of the judges, commented that information is the key to travel selection. “As consumers, we’re getting smarter about travel options, with more information made available at our fingertips. We often ask ourselves at Expedia – how can we leverage our investment in technology and data, so that every traveller can find the trip they want – whether it’s their 1,000th or their first? Many of the ideas we saw during the hack explored ways to filter this information to drive more relevant travel choices, which is where the whole travel experience begins.”
Destination Hack Singapore winners:
Best New Technology Application
Moments by Marcos Angeles, Isolda Josy, Paul Amazona and Pranay Roy.
Best Use of VR, sponsored by SabreLabs
Built with the technology used by the Pokémon Go game, TraveGo lets travellers interact with an avatar to search and review potential destinations interactively. An avatar in this context is an assistant represented by an icon or a human image.
Chatbot Challenge, sponsored by SabreLab
Chat Planner is a chatbot that turns travel conversations into actionable bookings, using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing to make trip planning more intuitive. A chatbot is a type of software that can chat with users and perform actions as a result of the conversation.
Best Widget Idea for the new Sabre Red Workspace Panels
CreditCardsOffer is a widget letting travel agents quickly access a summary of credit card promotions with airlines, hotels and car rental companies, all in one place and from within their workflow. A widget is software that runs continuously, such as to tell time, whereas an app is software that can be switched on or off.
Best Widget Idea for the new Sabre Red Workspace Decision Support Bar
Travelbrain is a chatbot-based virtual assistant integrated with Facebook Messenger to analyse customer preferences, helping agents build more personalised itineraries. A virtual assistant is one created from software, as opposed to a person doing the job.
Best use of Giata APIs, sponsored by Giata
Stranded Flights is a microsite for airline passengers delivering real-time updates and information during disruptions, from flight details to vouchers for airport services or hotel stays. A microsite is a mini-website that focuses on a particular topic, has relatively few pages and typically resides on a larger website, whereas a website can have many pages on many topics.
Most Likely to Succeed, sponsored by DHISCO
Flightzilla is a chatbot that helps travellers search for flights and then share their recommendations with friends to win rewards whenever a recommendation generates a booking.
