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UK’s largest independent travel agency group smashes the OTA competition with its successful B2C website, powered by the Glasgow-headquartered tech firm
Traveltek Group Ltd’s long term client, Hays Travel, has scooped an industry award for the ‘Best Travel Agent Site’, staving off competition from two OTA heavyweights.
The UK’s largest independent travel agency group beat fellow finalists Love Holidays and Travel Republic in this highly-contested category at the recent TravelMole UK Awards 2017.
It’s an accolade Hays Travel’s Head of Digital & Selling Systems, John Milburn, has attributed to the agency’s omni-channel approach and its progressive web strategy, developed in partnership with Traveltek.
“We were honoured to be shortlisted alongside two major OTAs and to win was an absolute surprise, but it is testament to the hard work of our teams, which has seen us grow our digital presence over the last few years. It has resonated extremely well with consumers, opening our brand to new audiences and allowing us to market to them cost effectively,” he said.
“This is by no means the finished article and we have very ambitious plans going forward, but we have built strong foundations that focus on engaging and useful content, without losing that ‘travel agent’ feel.”
Milburn added: “We have been partners with Traveltek for more than nine years and this great working relationship continues to help us drive forward our web strategy.”
Traveltek has been building B2B and B2C travel websites for almost two decades, transforming offline agencies with small information-based sites into e-commerce giants.
Hays Travel is one of the travel technology specialist’s biggest success stories, according to Neil Welsh, Head of Sales EMEA Region, Traveltek Group Ltd.
“Hays Travel has established a strong web presence as a crucial facet of its omni-channel approach, harnessing our technology to reach out to new clients and improve the customer experience,” he said.
“At the same time, the company has not lost sight of the need to provide a personalised service and in addition to our web technology, has made use of our suite of solutions including iSell , iBOS and iTour, to support travel agency staff in a number of ways, from user-friendly search and booking tools to helping them create and package bespoke itineraries for their clients.”
Traveltek offers travel agents and tour operators mobile-friendly web solutions and is currently rolling out new data-driven UX (User Experience) and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) services designed to help them capitalise on the surge in mobile device and smartphone usage.
These new features will help travel agents and tour operators drive up conversion rates by optimising the front-end user journeys on their B2C travel websites.
