Amadeus continues to place particular emphasis on growing the number of independent properties available for travel agencies to book in its system. The company has increased the number of small, independent and budget accommodation connected to its system by 38 per cent since last October. These hotels connect cost-efficiently to Amadeus' worldwide distribution network though the Amadeus Multichannel Distribution tool.

"Small and budget hotels, which have traditionally not distributed through a distribution system such as ours, are often exactly the hotels which are most in demand by a lot of organisations," explains Faris Azzee, Director Sales for Dubai and Northern Emirates at Amadeus Gulf. "That is why we are working hard to add more and more of these properties to the range of hotels which travel agencies and corporations can book through the Amadeus system."

"With the approaching summer holidays, many families and individual travellers visiting new destinations request for a complete travel package from their travel agents that includes accommodation and stay at decent local hotels. By increasing the network of hotels, Amadeus offers travel agents ample business choice and the confidence to be a competitive preference for their customers", added Azzee.

Amadeus is also working on a number of other initiatives to boost the use of its distribution system for booking hotels. Amadeus recently launched a pilot of its Worldwide Commission Manager.