In Travel News’s ‘Who is’ series, we introduce you to some of the faces and personalities in the travel industry. This week, we profile recently appointed country manager of Travelport Southern Africa, Adrian Roodt. Sarah Robertson reports.
Adrian has over 2 decades of experience pioneering technology projects. Currently in lockdown with his wife, two young children, their dogs and tropical fish, Adrian spoke to Travel News about opening up new markets during his time with Computicket, and his aim to introduce wide-scale use of multi-content booking platforms in his new role at Travelport.
Fresh out of university having studied a Bcom, Adrian was hired as a trainee area manager for Computicket in 1996. He worked his way up through company being promoted to retail manager and operations manager before joining the Computicket senior management team where he worked as second in command - reporting directly to the GM.
“Computicket has always been a pioneer and was one of the first companies in South Africa to introduce an online platform for the sale of theatre tickets and events. I gained fantastic experience here and spearheaded the roll-out of many “industry-firsts” including the transition from Computicket kiosks to Shoprite Checkers outlets when Computicket was purchased by the retailer in 2005, and the sale of airline tickets at Money Market counters” said Adrian.
Computicket first began to get involved in travel when the company started selling long distance bus ticket sales on their network which proved extremely popular. In the early 2000s – when low cost carriers started to emerge in South Africa – Computicket again saw an opportunity to distribute services for airlines cheaply, at a time when LCCs and airlines were looking to cut back on agent commissions, says Adrian.
“I got involved in the integration of Kulula, Mango and many other low cost carriers into the Computicket System over the years. Sales really took off as our easy-to-access distribution in the Shoprite and Checkers stores allowed first time travellers, and those that did not have credit cards, to book flights for the first time. Our in-store payment options also appealed to an older and wealthier clientele who were not yet comfortable to book and pay for tickets online. These successes led to the establishment of a separate Computicket Travel brand in 2008,” says Adrian.
In 2010 Adrian made the decision to leave Computicket and start up his own consulting business before joining Real Time Travel Connections as its COO in 2012. RTTC was contracted by Travelport to provide IT assistance for agents which gave Adrian hands-on experience of the Travelport system and involved him in the transition from the SAA who operated the Galileo license to the Travelport Southern Africa at that time.
In 2015 Adrian moved back to Computicket where he became involved in driving the strategy for Computicket Travel. The travel division was still showing growth and had begun rolling out a range of international travel products and amongst other projects was approached by a large South African bank’s rewards programme to assist with all the integrations and back-end for their travel booking system. This was the first of its kind in South Africa with a fully automated ticketing and reconciliation, essentially making the majority of bookings “touch free”.
Late last year Travelport head hunted Adrian as one of a select group of candidates that they were considering to replace Claudette Thorne, who had been promoted and relocated to Dubai.
“With the backing of Travelport’s new owners the company has embarked on a new wave of reorganization to the take Travelport into the future. We are one of the first companies to have incorporated NDC in our booking platform and my current task is to encourage agents to take advantage of all of the multi-source content that we now offer through a single simple booking platform,” he said.
What’s in store?
While Adrian says that no one knows what the post-COVID19 travel industry will look like, he believes that Travelport’s existing strategies will continue to remain relevant going forward but will need some adjustments based on estimations of future travel demand and volumes.
“As travel revives there will be a strong focus on domestic travel with corporate and government bookings being the first markets expected to actively resume international travel. From a leisure perspective we expect short-term favourable pricing – as suppliers attempt to entice travellers out of their homes – and back into planes and hotels. High end resorts and lodges will also have to adjust their pricing substantially while borders are closed to become more accessible to South Africans. In the long run Adrian believes that pricing will start to climb up again to sustainable levels,” says Adrian.
Adrian also believes that airlines – that have actively been cutting down on agent distribution to cut costs – may also reconsider the importance of this extensive and efficient distribution channel. “Southwest Airline’s decision to sign up with GDSs this month for the first time in its history is a prime example of this,” said Adrian.
Did you know?
Adrian is highly involved with his church spending as much of his free time as possible involved in their community projects.
