Launch of international booking platform for small hotels
Róger Solórzano Canales | Jul 12, 2011
CANATUR and the Spanish company Amadeus made an alliance to create an international reservations system
The National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) officially presented yesterday, July 12th, an international booking platform that they have enabled thanks to the support of a Spanish company of international reservations named Amadeus. There are forty Nicaraguan small hotels (under 25 rooms) listed on this project, which will later expand to the rest of Central America.
According to representatives of CANATUR, it is the first time that this booking system is available to small businesses, as it was previously available only for large hotels and airlines. This partnership was accomplished thanks to a corporate social responsibility program developed by Amadeus, which is the reason why they signed an agreement with the Central American Tourism Council (CCT). There were also economical funds given by the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (INTUR).
Headquartered in Madrid, Spain, Amadeus offers an online reservations system available in different countries. Sixty eight thousand travel agencies are registered in this company, according to what was announced during the press conference. There were some larger hotels already offering their services through this system, but they were mainly transnational companies.
All the small companies that are part of the trial have already started offering their services internationally, according to what Zenayda Laguna, CANATUR's Executive Director, explained to the national media. Those 40 hotels belong to different structures of the tourism chamber, such as Pequeños Hoteles (HOPEN), Red de Posadas Rurales de Nicaragua, several departmental chapters, among others. The hotels are distributed in five departments: Masaya, Granada, Chinandega, Leon and Managua.
Translated by Cinthia Membreño