| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 12/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 6 |
| Copyright: Other |
Internet-based Traveleye to save agents’ time
New system to speed up availability search
Report by TANYA JEFFERIES
NETWORK provider X-TANT claims its newly launched Internet-based booking system Traveleye will slash the amount of time travel agents have to spend checking holiday availability.The EasySell facility, developed by X-TANT’s technology partner LNS, allows agents to search for availability among up to five tour operators simultaneously.
In addition Traveleye offers viewdata, on-line brochures, Internet access, e-mail and a back-office system.
Marketing director Kerry Wilce said: “If an agent has to search through different tour operator systems, it might take them 10 minutes per operator on viewdata. With Traveleye it will take a couple of minutes to do the whole thing.
“The importance of that is travel agents can spend their time getting a customer to buy rather than searching for a holiday.”
Wilce claimed the huge amount of information stored in the system and the consumer friendly way in which it is presented would help agents to compete against new sales channels like the Internet and interactive TV.
Traveleye has been piloted in 10 travel agencies over the past two months but it is now available for sale to the rest of the trade.
A £20 a month per branch package is available but this does not include call charges. A package, including call charges, starts at £240 a month per branch.
Optional features like EasySell and the back-office system TravelLITE cost extra.
Wilce hopes to secure deals with 500 travel agents by the end of this year and he is confident the system is big enough to cope with this number. “We would have to have at least three servers fall over before it would start affecting agents,” he said.
Time out: launching X-TANT’s new Traveleye reservations system, from left, are Philip Nuttall, Information Technology manager at Bourne Travel, Blackpool; Peter Whittle, product manager,X-TANT; and Sarah Nelson, senior travel consultant, Bourne Travel