28 March 2008

TravelMole e-Wire Q&A with ComtecÃ¢â¬â¢s Simon Powell

Simon Powell is CEO of South Wales-based technology supplier Comtec. His background is in retail Ã¢â¬' his family started up a chain of travel agencies, Holiday Express, which were eventually sold to First Choice in 1995.

Comtec was born out of the technology that he created to help smooth the wheels of his own agency and now offers solutions to the travel agent, the tour operator and travel suppliers.

The company launched Travelconnect, its latest agency selling platform which incorporates a range of value-added multimedia tools, at the 2008 Travel Technology Show.

Q: Technology is developing at an astounding pace in the travel industry. Are agents keeping up?

A: Like any industry, there are those who are always at the forefront of technology and want to know about all the latest kit and there are those who need some prompting. All agents, whether they are interested in technology or not, need to be able to offer their customer as much choice and added value these days as possible and as its their systems that provide this, they need to be interested.

Q: Gone are the days when travel websites simply sold tickets. Now content is rich and explains what agents used to, and users can read reviews and blogs about hotels and destinations. Is the role of the agent finally being eroded?

A: IÃ¢â¬â¢ve been in the travel industry a long time and people have always talked about the death of the travel agent but the truth is that the good ones who stay one step ahead and fully engage with what technology can offer them will survive and adapt. ItÃ¢â¬â¢s not about the ability to put a package together, itÃ¢â¬â¢s about utilising the social networking sites, the Google maps to tell you how far away the beach is and the 360 degree videos of hotel rooms so that agentsÃ¢â¬â¢ customers feel they have accessed as much information as there is out there to help them.

Q: How have travel agent selling and management systems developed since the early days of Comtec when you created Easysell?

A: These days itÃ¢â¬â¢s all about having access to all the different options from one selling platform, be it looking at packages, dynamic packaging components, cruises or whatever. Agents need to be able to quickly compare across the spectrum of suppliers and add value by accessing all the extras like the social networking sites, maps etc. Rich content is so important now.

Q: OK Ã¢â¬' hereÃ¢â¬â¢s your chance to tell us why agents should use Comtec solutions. GoÃ¢â¬~¦

A: We have achieved five key milestones during the last 12 months. Last year we achieved the highest sales turnover and business profits since the company was formed. We expanded into major new markets, notably winning a technology contract with Vacation.com, the largest travel marketing organisation in the USA, which will open up exciting new international opportunities. And in January we experienced our highest ever volume of monthly sales transactions, with Ã&#pound;750 million in sales revenue processed via Comtec systems for our clients. Our fourth key milestone was the launch of the Comtec Travelgateway, establishing the largest leisure travel network in the industry by connecting both agents and operators with hundreds of travel suppliers. And lastly, we just unveiled Travelconnect which represents a step change in the agency selling system sector and heralds the arrival of Dynamic Packaging 2.0.