Illusions Online IWTX set to reach US$1bn in trade
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Illusions Online expects to reach US$1 billion in total trade on its i-World Travel eXchange (IWTX) platform in 2015, it was announced at ITB Asia.
IWTX is the travel technology company’s cloud-based global digital platform for tour operators and destination management companies.
“We’ve already made US$700 million in trade to-date, and that should reach US$1bn by next year,” said Gregory Duffell, Illusions’ vice president of sales for Asia. “There wasn’t a platform where we could trade as an industry,” Duffell explained, “where TOs and DMCs could buy and sell amongst themselves. We’re essentially an iOS for the travel industry.”
Duffell claims that agents are handicapped because they can’t buy in high volume, and the way the industry works makes it difficult for someone to buy a product.
“Dynamic packaging also means that if you make small mistake in some information about one of your products, it can affect a huge number of package products – and if you sell group holidays, this mistake then becomes 20 times bigger,” he explained. “The industry is fraught with inaccurate rates – we don’t only offer a partnership to ensure your information is correct, but we offer a distribution system for your product.”
The product is based completely in the cloud and so all updates are in real-time and all software updates are included in the contract price, as it is in the company’s interest that their partners grow too.
Speaking about Illusions’ Asian expansion, Duffell continued; “The Middle East and Europe are our core strength right now, so we’re now looking for breadth and depth in Asia Pacific. We’ll have a new headquarters in Bangkok by the end of the year and a new data centre in the Philippines during Q1 2015.”
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