Asserting its expertise in web travel technology, Virgin Holidays has launched an online self-service tool for travel agents.

Published: 25 May 2006

Asserting its expertise in web travel technology, Virgin Holidays has launched an online self-service tool for travel agents.

“This is a first for the travel industry. No other mainstream tour operator allows travel agents to not only access their customer’s bookings post-booking but also enables them to make significant changes to personalise and enhance the holiday experience,” stated the company.

Virgin Holidays’ registered travel agents can now not only make the holiday booking on-line (at www.vhols4agents.com) but can also now access that booking throughout its life and make a range of changes and transactions, including; Upgrading flights; Adding or upgrading a hire car; Changing customer details; Upgrading hotel rooms; Changing the hotel completely or just changing the board basis; Adding or changing excursions; Requesting information on tickets or itineraries; Requesting or printing invoices.

Stewart Baird, sales and operations director, Virgin Holidays said, “This is a huge step forward for the travel industry and another nail in Viewdata’s coffin. travel agents don’t want to wait in a telephone queue to simply change a name or add an excursion to a booking. Our technology enables them do this and so much more in a simple and user friendly way. We alert travel agents to up-sale opportunities and this great tool helps them increase sales revenue and commission earnings.”

Virgin Holidays stated that it has integrated this technology with its customer relationship management platform, e-piphany, to create a powerful tool not only for its own business but also to enhance travel agents’ sales performance.

“It now allows Virgin Holidays to automatically run a report of all bookings to identify where there are up-sell opportunities, such as flight upgrades, a convertible hire car or upgrading a hotel room to an ocean view. Personalised emails can then be sent to individual branches showing special offers by individual bookings, which enable agents to secure an easy but valuable secondary sale,” as per an official release.