A deal between aggregator TourHound and Travel Marketing Systems (TMS) will help agents who want to promote touring and adventure holidays.
Agents will be able to access marketing assets from more than 50 touring and adventure operators as a result of the agreement.
TMS, which recently developed QR-coded window posters for travel agents, is set to include the new TourHound-PRO widget on its agent websites, which currently number more than 200.
The widget is an application embedded into a retailer’s existing consumer website and provides real-time content from more than 50 of the UK’s touring and adventure operators. These include Newmarket Holidays, G Adventures, Explore and Leger.
The content will be accessible to agencies using TMS’ sites. It will allow agents to create marketing assets in the TMS Marketing Manager system for posters, social posts, email templates and digital screens using TourHound’s content.
TourHound will add more functionality to the widget over the coming months. The widget basic entry level is free but upgrades will be available for a charge.
Chairman Laurence Hicks said: “We are delighted to have secured this agreement with Travel Marketing Systems which will springboard the widget into a significant number of retail websites at a time when touring and adventure is starting to see signs of recovery.”
He said he was confident the widget would help drive sales and enquiries “as agents start to come out of the long, dark Covid tunnel”.
TMS has been building websites and combining them with marketing technology specifically for small, independent travel retailers since 2011. Founder Steve Rushton said the deal would make a difference for agents who wanted to sell adventure and touring holidays.
He added: “Marketing campaigns that would normally have taken hours or sometimes days to prepare, can now be created in minutes – this is a game changer for any agent wanting to sell tours and activities.”