Travel Technology Systems joins Atas to showcase leisure platform

Travel Technology Systems has joined the Association of Touring & Adventure Suppliers (Atas) to build relations with the sector and showcase its leisure platform Erin.

Matthew Hicks, chief revenue officer at TTS, said: “We’ve joined Atas because it brings together a community of travel businesses that understand the opportunities and the operational complexities of touring and adventure travel.

“It’s an important sector for TTS and one where we believe our technology can make a real difference.

“We’re looking forward to getting closer to the Atas community, building relationships with travel agents, tour operators and suppliers, and gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.”

He said TTS has more than 30 years of travel tech experience to share with the sector, to help businesses work more efficiently and deliver better customer experiences.

“UK travel agents remain incredibly important because they bring something technology alone cannot; expertise, trust and a human understanding of the customer,” he continued.

“For complex, tailor-made and specialist travel, customers often need advice and reassurance as much as they need a booking.

“Behind that customer experience, however, agents are dealing with increasingly complex operations, multiple suppliers, availability, pricing, changes, payments, customer communications and after-sales.

“That’s where we see a real opportunity for technology to support agents.

“Erin is designed to take away much of the operational complexity, allowing agents to spend more time doing what they do best, selling travel and looking after their customers.”

He noted how the touring and adventure sector is particularly interesting from a technology perspective because a booking might involve multiple destinations, accommodation, transfers, activities, transport and suppliers.

“That creates a level of complexity that generic booking technology doesn’t always handle particularly well. This is exactly the type of complexity Erin was built to manage,” he explained.

“Technology needs to be flexible enough to support the way specialist travel is actually sold, rather than forcing businesses to adapt their processes to the limitations of their software.”

Erin can bring enquiries, quotes, bookings, customer management, supplier inventory, pricing, payments and post-sale activity together within one platform, he explained, adding: “It is designed to support complex and tailor-made travel from the initial enquiry right through to after-sales.

“The aim is to automate and simplify the time-consuming operational tasks, giving agents more time to focus on customers, sales and creating great travel experiences.”