In a bid to expand its agency and tour distribution offering in the UK, Amadeus has announced a strategic partnership with Comtec (Europe) Ltd. Under the terms of the agreement, Amadeus will become a 20 per cent shareholder in Comtec.
Both companies are looking to enhance and expand their existing businesses by delivering ‘the building blocks’ for the future of leisure travel technology in the U.K. and in continental Europe. This will be achieved by merging the best of Amadeus and Comtec technologies.

Amadeus are primarily looking to diversify their product offering in a challenging marketplace and see a gap in the leisure market. David Jones, Executive Vice President, Commercial at Amadeus commented: “Having recently acquired a tour operator distribution business in Germany we believe there is great potential here. We are looking to replicate this model of tour distribution for agents in the UK and in Europe”.

David Jones revealed that Amadeus selected Comtec to bring the content to the UK because it is a market leader and has such a broad range of products. He commented: “Comtec is a proven leisure travel technology expertise, and with almost two thirds of the U.K. leisure market, has both scale and valuable knowledge of this important market. This partnership is a clear example of Amadeus’s ability to combine our global reach, capacity and innovation, with flexible, localised solutions to answer customer needs.”

Comtec are looking to expand their market presence outside the UK.  Simon Powell, Comtec’s Chief Executive, said, “This agreement with Amadeus, will enable us to enter the continental European market, and to expand our already strong leisure platform so that we can enable all UK travel agents to fulfil the needs of their customers,
thereby enhancing their role as professional travel advisors”

For travel agents and tour operators, Amadeus and Comtec will progressively maximise their opportunities by providing connectivity and access to domestic and trans-European bookable content and distribution.

The product integration, which is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2004, will mean that travel agencies and tour operators will be able to deliver a wider choice of leisure packages and dynamic packaging options to travellers. Agents will no longer have to source their booking systems from multiple suppliers, allowing for substantial cost savings and productivity gains.

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