Travelink

has signed a five-year deal with luxury tour operator Classic Collection Holidays.  The contract covers availability and booking systems, no-frill airlines and global distribution system (GDS) content.Travelink recently built Amadeus into its products and this development means Classic Collection Holidays will be using Amadeus for all of its GDS bookings made via the Travelink system.

“We need a tour operating system and we need GDS connectivity.  Travelink proved that two into one does go, so we rationalised,” said Nick Munday, Classic Collection Holidays’ managing director.

The Classic Collection Holidays business is Travelink’s sixth new account win in three months. 

Travelink made no-frills content bookable towards the end of last year and in February it introduced a capital-free business model for its British customers.  This allows operators to use outsourced hardware and to pay for the system on a ‘per passenger’ basis.

Managing director David Jones said British holidaymakers were starting to demand increased flexibility from tour operators.

“Tour operators are finding they have to provide things like flexible departure dates, scheduled airline seats and a range of different booking channels - including the Internet,” Jones said.

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