BCD Travel to highlight Middle East presence at Business Travel Show

As the world's third largest corporate travel management company, BCD Travel knows the importance of the Gulf market and continues to invest in the region both in terms of increased presence and further resource dedicated to multi-national clients.

The company's understanding of business practices within the region, coupled with its ability to leverage global technologies to deliver specific and consistent products and services, clearly suits this growing market.

From an infrastructure perspective, BCD Travel is constantly evolving, with a strong and growing foothold in the Middle East region which currently covers the key markets of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This extensive coverage enables BCD Travel to support its regional customers 24/7 through an integrated technology and process infrastructure.

In the words of CEO Mike Buckman, "The decision to create BCD Travel came directly from listening to what our clients want and need. A significant number of our clients had a need for a strong regional presence in the Gulf."

Visitors to the BCD Travel stand at this year's Business Travel Show in Dubai will be able to experience a suite of innovative solutions designed to empower corporate travel and procurement managers with greater control and efficiency over their travel and expense management lifecycle, whilst helping to keep business travellers safe and on mission.

These innovations include the introduction of:

DecisionSourceTM: Data Manager - An information management platform that provides at-a-glance information to measure programme effectiveness, spot trends, improve cash management and drive savings and compliance. DecisionSource: Data Manager supplies vital information to cross-functional teams - online and on-demand.
DecisionSourceTM: Security Manager - A comprehensive global security and crisis management platform that provides impact and event classification and monitoring, destination monitoring, and proactive traveller tracking.

MICE: Whether companies require a turnkey registration tool, conference or incentive travel planning, a strategically managed meetings solution or a once-in-a-lifetime event, BCD Travel's team of experts offer a full continuum of services in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events to help corporations control their annual meeting spend, leverage their meetings volume to gain efficiencies successfully launch new products and more.
Local Website: BCD Travel will also officially launch its local UAE website (www.bcdtravel.ae) and demonstrate how to use the online booking tool that allows searching the Galileo GDS for any travel requirements in terms of air tickets, hotel accommodation and car rentals.

BCD Travel, in collaboration with MobileTimes, the software developer and Web Services-a division of EmQuest, will also give first hand demonstration of an innovative platform, called PocketFlight, which is a powerful and user-friendly application intended to provide travellers in the region the convenience of accessing travel information in real time from handheld devices.

Leveraging on the technological capability and the ubiquity of the Internet, PocketFlight provides instant connectivity to Galileo's global travel inventory, i.e., access to information on hotels, airlines, car rental agencies and numerous other travel services around the world. This application can be downloaded directly onto PDAs, Pocket PCs and select mobile phones, and can be used over connections like GPRS, Wi-Fi, Active Sync or Sumbian platforms.

On BCD Travel's comprehensive presence at the Business Travel Show, Mike Buckman commented, "Our mission is to simplify and streamline the travel process, making sure all the moving parts are working together to support travellers and meet our clients' financial goals. To do this, the technology has to be smart, the data synchronized and above all, we have to deliver progressive, strategic services designed to meet unique goals for each company."