In this context, Travel2latam spoke with José Guzmán, Regional Director of Saber for Northern Latin America.
How has the experience of participating in an event like the Tourist Showcase been?
It is one of the most relevant events in Latin America that brings together destinations, technology providers, companies, and the entire travel ecosystem, airlines and hotels. That is, it is a meeting point to talk about what is happening in the industry and to get new allies, interact and move businesses forward.
At what point does Saber arrive at an event like this?
We are in a process of acceleration and great transformation in the industry. We are structuring modern sales concepts. It is a path that we identified before the pandemic, for which we chose the best ally at a global level and we were the first GDS ( global distribution system ) to choose one of the technology giants like Google to help us get to that point. Modern retailing. This is based on bringing personalized, flexible and dynamic sales concepts to travel distribution, which already exists in other industries such as Amazon or Netflix. We started that path with Google and that is why we are already incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning under our transformation and innovation platform.
What is the feedback you have collected these days from the meetings here at La Vitrina?
In any process of transformation and transition there is always expectation. The ecosystem is moving, it is transforming, and all actors who are involved in some way have to move in a balanced way so that the same ecosystem remains in balance.
How does Saber work internally to stay ahead in such a changing and competitive market?
When we talk about Latin America, it is one of the continents that in terms of recovery performed well after the COVID pandemic. In LATAM, NDC had a much more accelerated dynamic, which has led to much greater uncertainty among the different actors. What we are also doing here is accelerating our NDC implementation plans with the different airlines. It is a new technology that changes the way we work.
The future of travel distribution is based on offers and orders to make the modern retailing model a reality. The alliance with Google is an additional pillar that allows us to reach this new concept of “modern retailing”, which is different from traditional air distribution models based on PNR. In Latin America, NDC has accelerated, we are already ready with airlines such as Aeroméxico, Avianca and soon LATAM.
At a global level, Saber has a very aggressive product map for the end of 2024. We want to close this year with about 15 more airlines, which added to the 19 we already have, would mean that by the end of 2024 we will already cover around 80% of the production we have globally.
How are they positioned compared to other regions?
One of the advantages is that being a global company, everything is worked transversally across all regions, so Latin America is the area where NDC technologies have accelerated the most. We already have the main airlines in this region, which allows us to cover the needs of the market, regardless of what is happening in another market.
How do you imagine 2025 for the company?
2025 will be a year of consolidation, since we will close this year with 80% of the volume we have in terms of airlines that cover our production, ready in NDC. Adoption will surely continue to accelerate, not only by airlines, but also by travel agencies.
How is the season going for you?
The season is still very active. It is a very dynamic market with this path of innovation that we are traveling together with Google. Saber will continue to deliver its artificial intelligence and machine learning products to airlines, agencies and hotels. We will also continue to implement or bring new products such as Saber Virtual Payments, which is our payments platform, a very innovative product in terms of virtual payments.