Thomson has penned a five-year deal with Travel Buddy, a company which provides destination information to holidaymakers via mobile phones.
The deal is an extension to Thomson’s previous one-year relationship with Travel Buddy and sees the mobile information specialist provide relevant updates such as weather, emergency numbers and local events to the tour operator’s customers via text.
Once customers opt in to the Travel Buddy service they can be profiled by route, destination, dates or other criteria and receive relevant information.
Customers are charged between 25p and £1 depending on the type of content they request.
Travel Buddy managing director Adam Winterflood said: “The Travel Buddy has allowed Thomson to continue the dialogue with their clients from the point of making a booking until completion of the holiday.”
Travel Buddy now developed content for more than 1,200 destinations as well as a mobile translator in 11 different languages.
Travel Buddy is also poised to announce a deal with a major travel retail network in the next few weeks.
Winterflood said: “The travel industry is sitting on a goldmine of information. They know the traveller’s name and information and where and when they are going but they are not using it. Travel suppliers are all going online and looking for ancillary revenue and that’s where Travel Buddy comes in.”