Abacus is Asia’s leading travel solutions and services provider, specializing in the
complex and ever-changing Asian travel marketplace. Asia’s travel industry, specifically,
is very dynamic and needs a travel services provider who is in tune with the region and
the needs of travellers in that part of the world. Abacus has been in the business of travel
solutions since 1988 and is dedicated to insuring the needs of travellers in the Far East
market are met with efficiency and accuracy. An in depth understanding of the local
market allows the travel experts with Abacus to provide services geared especially for the
Asian market


. Abacus fuses end-to-end technologies to create a differentiated portfolio of
solutions and services driven by insights on how travel business operates in Asia Pacific. We
help our travel partners create better customer experiences, optimise business operations
and enhance competitiveness. Over the decades, Abacus has expanded its footprint to 31
markets and over 20,000 agency locations across Asia Pacific. IT has been inducted into the
TTG Hall of Fame in 2009 and the winner of Travel Weekly China’s award for ‘Best New
Technology’ from 2007 to 2011 and 2013(http://www.abacus.com.sg/about.html).
Corporate Overview
Core to the Abacus business is our constant drive to provide tailored support and
service to each individual market. To-date, a total of US$175 million has been invested
to develop, localise and enhance solutions to meet the needs of each market. Abacus
International is owned by a consortium of Asia’s leading airlines including All Nippon
Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Dragon Air,
Philippine Airlines, Malaysia Airlines,


 Royal Brunei Airlines, Silk Air and Singapore
Airlines. Abacus is also backed by US owned Sabre, the global leader in the electronic
distribution of travel and travel related services (http://www.abacus.com.sg/about.html).
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Competitive Advantage
Abacus is able to provide travel agencies with the software and technologies to go
into the online world with ease, affordability and scalability. Abacus Web Start enables
travel agencies to provide fare search, reservation and booking capabilities with less effort
and cost than many other software services. It is essential, in today’s market, for any travel
affiliate or travel agencies to have an online presence in the travel market. Abacus is able
to link any travel affiliate with the Asian travel market and support all aspects of traveller’s
need
Services Offered
Abacus works closely with many key partners in the industry to provide an expansive
portfolio of specialised products and services to support every travel agency segment
including online, corporate and leisure.(http://www.abacus.com.sg/about.html).
Conclusion
This unit has discussed the functions and critical aspects of the five major
distribution systems across the world. Though each of these systems enjoys unique business
competitiveness, they are all different in terms of each other in the way they manage the
stakeholder and operate in the market. Going my the market and the trends in the tourism
industry these models have to work out on more effective as they will be facing some serious
threats in terms of cost and various other cultural aspects. Only the GDS companies that are
willing to continuously learn and change according to the requirement of the market will be
able to survive the competition and succeed in the long run.