The Singapore-based Abacus, Asia-Pacific's leading travel facilitator, has launched a wholly-owned national distribution company in Pakistan. The new company will be known as Abacus Distribution Systems Pakistan (Pvt) Limited (ADSPL), according to a press release issued here on Wednesday. With more than 10,000 agency locations in 21 markets, the Abacus has forecast that Pakistan travel and tourism would experience unprecedented growth in 2005.
Abacus President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Don Birch has said that restructuring its operations underlined the Abacus' commitment to the Pakistan travel industry and would enable the company to better serve its travel agency partners, travel suppliers and customers.
"Along with China and India, Pakistan is expected to be one of the fastest-growing travel and tourism markets in the region over the next decade, contributing to five per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and accounting for more than four percent of employment," Birch said.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) expects the travel and tourism demand in Pakistan to grow by 6.9 percent between 2004 and 2014.
The Abacus has been established in Pakistan in 1997 and to date, it has offices across eight cities in Faisalabad, Islamabad, Karachi, Kharian, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Sialkot.
The Abacus signed a joint venture distribution agreement with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on October 23, 2004. Under the agreement, PIA content would be distributed through the Abacus system exclusively.
Since October last year, the Abacus has established a head office in Karachi. Concurrently, the ADSPL has successfully migrated more than 650 travel agencies on the PIA system to the Abacus family.
Abacus' Vice-President for South Asia region Kenneth Low will oversee the operation of Abacus distribution systems in Pakistan. Karachi-based ADSPL Deputy General Manager Shazina Masud will report to Kenneth.
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