Tourvest DMC, like many tour operators, leverages the Tourplan platform as its primary reservations management system. However, over a decade of in-house development has been channelled into our own applications which differentiate our technology offering.
Dieter Holle, Chief Information Officer, elaborates “We use the Tourplan platform as our ‘bread and butter’ platform, and then develop all the ‘bells and whistles’ in our own applications which we integrate as tightly as possible. We have a very well-engineered and mature B2B web-platform which allows our clients to self-service based on what they are comfortable with, ranging from contracting requirements to the seamless booking of entire travel arrangements with output into attractively formatted white-label itineraries. Currently nearly 50% of our accommodation inventory is available either in real-time or through negotiated allocations. A large portion of the real-time inventory also features Best Available Rates (BAR). Our B2B platform was built strictly to our clients’ needs and manages to simplify day to day operations. It is equally flexible, and deployable in an affiliate configuration to bring the tool directly to travel agents, whilst keeping the tour operator or parent company in control.”
Further to the B2B platform the company has developed its own API (Application Programming Interface) aligned to the OTA industry standard, which allows integration into Tourvest DMC’s platform for purposes of real-time transactions and content provision.
Holle continues “This development sets us apart in that we are ‘Tourplan independent’ to our client base, meaning we can combine any number of data sources or applications in the back-office, and present this to our client through a single API. Should we choose to swap out any of those sources, our clients are not inconvenienced and are not forced to re-integrate into yet another API. Likewise combining data sources and applications allows us to offer functionality and content which is not otherwise achievable. As an example, we currently integrate our Tourplan business logic in combination with WETU and in-house sourced supplier content, all accessible via a single API to our client.”
Currently Tourvest DMC is actively researching and developing data caching techniques to favourably compete with the big bed-bank offerings, with response time and accuracy being of key importance.
“We are actively experimenting with NoSQL databases and talking to current technology trendsetters such as Peakwork about future possibilities”, says Holle.
