Travelport teams with TAG

Courtesy Travelport

The multi-year deal commenced on 1st January 2020 and offers members within the Focus network access to a central technology fund, product discounts and support from Travelport’s account management team.

Nilo Sirinivasan, Head of Account Management UK at Travelport, said: “Flexibility and choice have become the currency of today’s mobile corporate travelers and continue to influence loyalty and compliance towards travel management companies. We are delighted to have strengthened our relationship with the Focus Travel partnership through this new agreement and we are looking forward to working with its members to ensure they have the tools they need to build relationships of trust with their corporate clients and ultimately grow their businesses.”

The Focus Travel Partnership was first launched in 1999 as a network of 63 travel management companies operating within the UK’s largest independent travel agent network, Advantage Travel Partnership.

Through its agreement with the Focus Travel Partnership, Travelport will make a catalogue of product training tools and updates available to ensure members are aware of innovations and are utilising the full suite of technological capabilities available to them. There are also plans to host dedicated Focus forums for non-Travelport agencies who will also have access to a free audit and consultancy session.

Abby Penston, Managing Director of the Focus Travel Partnership, said: “The Focus Travel Tech Panel has conducted a thorough tendering process over the last quarter and while a number of companies put forward competitive proposals, it was deemed that Travelport’s proposal was the most closely aligned with the needs of the whole partnership.

"Travelport’s vision was strong commercially and tactically, and mirrors our strategic objectives and we therefore decided to award them preferred status starting from 1st January 2020.”

In addition to being awarded preferred supplier status, Travelport has announced that it has also agreed a multi-year technology contract by leading UK travel management company, TAG.

Under the agreement, TAG will continue to enjoy real-time access to a broad range of high-quality content from more than 400 airlines, hundreds of thousands of hotel properties, and 37,000 car rental locations. It will also benefit from Travelport’s cutting-edge search, automation, shopping and booking technologies, while accessing valuable data, business logic and profiling functionality on a single platform. 

Steve Barrass, CEO at TAG, said: “TAG is excited to announce that we are continuing our successful global partnership with Travelport allowing us to build on the value-added initiatives that have been developed together over the last few years. 

"The combination of TAG’s specialist approach to business and Travelport’s positioning as technology leaders, allows us to have a unique vantage point from which to identify and provide advanced solutions for our agents and our customers. Travelport brings a wealth of experience, credibility, and strategic thinking to complement TAG’s unique service model and together we look forward to delivering even more value to our customers.”