Specialist tour operator systems provider Travelink
has signed a five-year technology deal with WRU Services, a joint venture between the Welsh Rugby Union and Gatwick-based Titan Travel.  The organisation will use the Travelink system to send thousands of rugby fans each year to fixtures around the world.
Travelink will enable WRU Services to manage negotiated charter flight and hotel inventory for each tournament.  It will also help the company diversify into other sporting arenas, such as football and cricket.

“We process extraordinarily high volumes of travel in very short time windows, and our expansion plans call for flexible and robust technology to help us manage the booking process effectively,” said Lena Rann, general manager of WRU Services.

The tour operator also plans to use the system to target its marketing more effectively.  It will use Travelink’s ‘tailored attributes’ database to select the attributes of any customer, or customer group, that it wants to capture for future use. 

“We are developing tours tailored to individual travellers,” Rann said.  “Once we know that a customer is also interested in fishing and wine-tasting we can use this information to drive bookings more effectively than ever before.”

Travelink managing director David Jones said many UK tour operators had been “asleep at the wheel” when it came to targeted marketing.

“WRU Services is no high street multiple, yet it is doing things with marketing and technology that should make others sit up and take notice,” Jones said.
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