Formerly known as The Appointment Group up until a rebrand at the end of 2018, TAG now has five divisions (corporate; touring; events; film and media; and private travel) and ten offices worldwide and the latest facility means it now has a presence in four of the top five global financial hubs - New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Asia is currently one of the most dynamic and exciting regions in the business world and according to Shane Barr, TAG's managing director of Asia-Pacific, having a presence in Hong Kong provides the "perfect stepping stone into the booming Chinese market." He explains: "This new expansion will strengthen TAG's visibility in the region and allow us to offer a premium level of service to our growing client base travelling and doing business across Asia."
Alongside the Hong Kong growth, TAG has also announced the signing of the first global TMC implementation agreement for Tramada, the cloud-based post-booking software from Tramada Systems. It first implemented Tramada in Australia, where the software has been in place for a year and strong regional results, which showed dramatic increases in automation and agent productivity for TAG has seen the deployment extended to a global level with effect from last month (Sep-2019).
"It would be an understatement to say the results TAG has achieved with Tramada are impressive," explains Stuart Mackay, chief technology officer for TAG. "The level of automation used during our booking process has increased significantly with Tramada, which has improved overall client experience in multiple ways as well as enabling our company to increase cost savings and revenues and improve our ability to be more agile in an ever-changing environment."
Alongside improving efficiencies and enhancing productivity, TAG says the system means agents now have the ability to spend more time focusing on customer service, while further benefits include access to NDC and other hybrid content sources as well as the use of rich business intelligence in real-time.
Tramada is described as an "advanced bookings management system" that streamlines travel operations, data management, document production, and travel accounting. It enables TMCs to "efficiently manage post-booking processes such as service fees, itineraries, invoicing, reporting, duty of care, and more for both NDC and (traditional) GDS bookings," according to Tramada Systems.