Unlike its two main global distribution system competitors, Travelport had been without its own in-house corporate booking tool since it sunset Traversa about a decade ago. That changed last March, when Travelport acquired corporate travel management platform Deem from Enterprise Holdings, which had owned Deem since 2019, and COO and deputy CEO John Elieson was one of the main drivers of the decision to make that acquisition.
Speaking to BTN in August, by which point Travelport had completed the integration of Deem within the Travelport Plus platform, Elieson called the acquisition a "natural extension" as Travelport consolidates its GDSs to a single platform. He said Travelport is building off Deem's strengths—usability and customer experience—and supporting it where it had been weaker on the market, particularly in terms of global reach.
As of August, Deem's support capabilities under Travelport had expanded to more than 60 countries, and next year Travelport expects to double its footprint, focusing first on Europe, the Middle East and Africa followed by Asia.
Travelport does not, however, have any plans to force Deem users to its GDS platform, pledging to keep Deem "GDS agnostic." In fact, Travelport CEO Greg Webb recently said Sabre New Distribution Capability integration was on the top of the company's to-do list.
Travelport did opt to drop the Etta name that Deem had given its booking tool, which replaced its previous Work Fource platform. The tool now is just Deem, meant to capitalize on the "loyalty and affinity" Deem already had built to its name, according to Elieson.