Travel Counsellors Signs New Agreement with Travelport GDS
Langley, UK,
10.02.2009
Travel Counsellors, a leading home-based travel company operating across seven countries, has signed a new multi-year agreement with Travelport GDS, one of the world’s largest global distribution system providers, for its Galileo GDS.
Often regarded as the largest and most professional home-based travel company in the world, last year Travel Counsellors increased its turnover by16% from £210m to £245m.
Patrick Lukan, general manager for Travelport GDS, UK & Ireland, commented;
“Travel Counsellors is a long standing and loyal customer and we’re confident that this new agreement will help them continue to develop their business, both in the UK as well as globally.
“We are committed to providing both Travel Counsellors and its individual Counsellors with the best content and high-tech GDS solutions along with our UK-based service and support.”
Travel Counsellors has developed award winning technology to allow its 1,000 full time agents to run their own businesses from home, supported by over 200 staff at the company’s UK headquarters and overseas offices.
Steve Byrne, managing director at Travel Counsellors, added, “We are delighted to be working with the Travelport GDS team and look forward to building our relationship with them over the coming months and years. We are constantly working on ways to further support our agents and help them grow their businesses. Our Phenix dynamic packaging system enables them to tailor-make itineraries and improve their margin, and we are now delighted to be able to provide our global network of Travel Counsellors with Travelport’s innovative e-Pricing product for finding the lowest fares which will soon be available to Galileo users.”
Travel Counsellors recently reported significant growth in its corporate travel business, with turnover for this sector of the business increasing from £10m in 2004 to over £40m in 2008 and significant growth expected in 2009.
Notes to editors
About Travelport GDS: More information about Travelport GDS is available at www.travelport.com
About Travel Counsellors: Travel Counsellors is the world’s largest home-based travel company with turnover at the end of its last financial year (Oct 31 2008) of £245 million, a 16% increase year on year. Founded in 1994 it currently has over 1,000 travel consultants who work from home with the support of over 200 staff at the company’s UK headquarters in Bolton and overseas offices. The company operates in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada and the US. In the UK Travel Counsellors places all customer money in a Trust account which guarantees a 100% refund in the event that a supplier collapses. Travel Counsellors was the winner of the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2003-2008, the technology category of the 2005 CBI Growing Business Awards and was voted Travel Agent of the Year by readers of the Guardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimited in 2006 & 2007. More information about Travel Counsellors is available at www.travelcounsellors.co.uk
Media Contact:
Kate Aldridge
Corporate Communications Director, EMEA and APAC
+44 (0) 1753 288720
kate.aldridge@travelport.com
Victoria Fox
Travel Counsellors
00 44 1204 536 191 / 002
victoria.fox@travelcounsellors.com
Helen Furnivall
Travel Counsellors
00 44 1204 536 191 / 002
helen.furnivall@travelcounsellors.com