Q&A with Peter Whittle, global sales director, Traveltek

Traveltek is a technology provider for retail and online travel agents, Global sales director, Peter Whittle explains why the UK travel tech specialist is a perfect fit for niche operators seeking powerful distribution. 

Why is Traveltek the ideal partner for tour operators?

Traveltek is the ideal partner for any tour operator that sells through the travel trade because of the vast UK agency footprint that we possess. All the UK’s leading independent agencies use Traveltek technology and we therefore offer tour operators a very powerful distribution platform.

What success have you had to date with your tour operator partners?

Earlier this year we rolled out a new customised platform for Unique Caribbean Holidays Ltd (UCHL), the UK tour operator for Sandals and Beaches Resorts. The tour operating platform delivered instant results for the ultra-all-inclusive specialist with trade bookings increasing 10% year on year in the months following its implementation. At the same time, agent web bookings as a total of UCHL’s trade business increased from 10% to 30%, which is a phenomenal result.

What are the key benefits your technology delivers to tour operators?

Our technology enables them to take total control of their sales distribution, expand their market reach, enhance the customer experience, boost in-house productivity and drive multi-channel sales — all on one integrated platform.

Powerful distribution capabilities aside, key platform features also include the ability to package and professionally merchandise land-only and air-and-land holidays for agents and consumers using net airfares and accommodation and applying the relevant pricing, sales channel and booking rule management.

Our system also connects to a selection of data feeds for product inventory including those provided by third parties and includes inventory management capabilities.

How can Traveltek help boost an operator’s brand presence?

Design plays an important role when we build platforms for our tour operating partners. We ensure their inventory is presented to the end user in an appealing and consistent fashion across all customer touchpoints, incorporating their brand values to inspire engagement and loyalty.  At the same time, the fully-integrated, end-to-end system drives efficiency and productivity gains across every back-office function to ensure the customer experience is flawless and with CRM functionality built in, the platform provides a holistic view of the customer profile, helping tour operators to better shape their product and sales and marketing strategies.

What are your goals for getting more tour operators on board?

We continue to witness leading niche tour operators such as UCHL migrate to our platform because we provide a one-stop shop for their unique, multi-faceted requirements. The benefits we offer niche tour operators are unrivalled and as more travel firms like UCHL look to better manage their distribution and inventory, we anticipate strong demand for Traveltek’s one-of-a-kind platform. We already work with a handful of independent tour operators but with so many niche players operating in the UK market, many of which rely on the travel trade for distribution, the potential to develop this aspect of our business is huge.

If you had one message for tour operators, what would it be?

Traveltek plugs into more independent travel agency desktops than any other technology provider.