Travellers in the country are now assured of improved high technology for growth of the industry thanks to an extended contract between Karibu Travel Company and Travelport.

According to a statement issued in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, the new deal will see Travelport continue to provide Karibu with its expertise and top of the range technology products and solutions including Smartpoint, Travelport Mobile Agent, Agentivity and eTravel Back office system.
“Travelport has consistently provided us with an outstanding service and products over the past 15 years,” said Karibu Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mohamed Sumar.
Travelport is a leading distribution services and e-commerce provider for the global travel industry with a presence in over 170 countries, approximately 3,500 employees and 2012 net revenue of more than 2 billion US Dollars.
Karibu is one of the oldest Travel Management Companies in Tanzania, formed five decades ago. It is a network partner of Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) – one of the biggest Travel Management Companies globally.
Mr Sumar said that as they celebrate 50 years of serving the travelling public, he was confident that Travelport’s technology and expertise will continue to support them in delivering the best possible service to their customers and ensure that we remain at the cutting edge of the industry.
He said that they recently announced the launch of a rebranded Waljis Travel Bureau and Karibu Holidays under their flagship brand – Karibu.

“Travelport has enjoyed a very successful relationship with Waljis Travel Bureau for more than 15 years and we now look forward to supporting their continued growth and success under the new Karibu brand,” said Travelport Managing Director for Africa, Mr Mark Meehan.
Mr Meehan said that the new contract reinforces their ongoing investments in East Africa as a strategic priority region and they share Karibu’s ambition of providing the best possible travel content and technology to customers across East Africa and beyond.
Smartpoint, one of their technologies has the advantage of assisting in automatic redisplay of booking files, follow up transactions accessible with a click, intuitive point and click approach to booking hotels and cars, quick reservation process reducing keystrokes by up 70 per cent and access to last seat availability from the initial display.
Travelport Smartpoint App allows agents to focus on improving non air attachment rates. By making car and hotel reservations easier for the agent, it could significantly increase attachment rates and subsequently increase revenue and profitability and productivity gains can be obtained by quicker reservations with fewer errors.