Will continue focusing on providing live experiences to Indian travellers than selling metaverse: Sabre India head

India will continue to be a key market for Sabre as the growth and potential for spending across the country have been quite significant for both airline bookings and hotels. Sabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry.

At a time when leading international air carriers and travel agencies are investing millions of dollars in developing metaverse experiences around their products and services, one of the world’s leading enablers for airline and hotel bookings has decided to go against the virtual tide.

The India head of $1.69-billion Sabre Corp said that the company will keep focusing on creating experiential memories for travellers through its solutions for airlines, airports, hotels, travel agencies and other travel service providers using the best available technologies.

“There are quite a few metaverses out there, with every company trying to create its own. There’s no clear leader so far. At Sabre, we strongly believe that people wish to travel to meet people and create experiences. So, we are focusing more on creating memories rather than focusing on metaverse currently,” said the company’s vice president of Site Reliability Engineering, Sabre Bengaluru Global Experiential Centre, Sriram Gopalswamy.

A Gartner study estimates that by 2026, 25 per cent of internet users will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social or entertainment.

However, Sabre is very bullish about the phenomenal recovery currently being witnessed in the travel business across Asia, especially India. India will continue to be a key market for Sabre as the growth and potential for spending across the country have been quite significant for both airline bookings and hotels.

“Sabre wants to capitalise on this demand by tapping into our technology prowess. India is growing at an unparalleled pace. Our GDP growth is rising and so does the [travel] industry,” observed Gopalswamy.

To further buttress his claim, he cited recent reports about the mega-aircraft deal being mulled by the national flag carrier Air India. The consequent increase in the size of airline passengers will mean there would be more people checking into hotel properties across the country.

“Being a travel technology company, we would like to ensure that the technology that we invest in is useful for the airline and hospitality industry. I believe there is going to be a lot of investment in technology, thereby expanding the scope of work for our global capability centre [in Bengaluru],” said Gopalswamy.

Gopalswamy asserted the company would continue to expand its India footprint as part of its strategy to be in one of the fastest-growing as well as the most cost-conscious travel markets.

“We are investing in our technology to provide maximum value for our customers. The retail intelligence solutions that we are building based on Google’s travel AI [artificial intelligence] philosophy can ensure that our customers, who are primarily airlines, airports, hotels, travel agencies and other travel service providers, get the best technology to make a differentiation to their offerings in the marketplace,” said Gopalswamy.

So, what would the Indian travel industry look like in another five years? Gopalswamy said it would be a different world since people would be moving away from merely buying airline tickets and hotel bookings to buying experiences.

“India will be a big travel marketplace, growing approximately by 10 per cent year-on-year,” opined Gopalswamy.

And Sabre would be among the frontrunners in creating that ecosystem, claimed Gopalswamy.

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