More evidence that the tour and activity sector is finally going mainstream, with Travelport giving agents tools to sell products from suppliers direct to leisure travellers.
Agents connected to Travelport's Rooms & More platform will be able to search and book tours and activities via the Local Offers channel on the site.
Providing single-day products will be US-based startup, FlexTrip, by way of a white label being developed and deployed into Rooms & More later this year.
FlexTrip has over 10,000 products on its database, all of which will also be made available through the Travelport Universal Desktop currently being rolled out through selected agencies around the world.
Chief operating officer and co-founder Alex Kremer says:
"The products are just some ways we're looking to help Travelport-connected agencies reach deeper into the in-destination portion of a traveller's budget, which we feel is an area where a lot of growth lies ahead."
The option on Rooms & More will be available to agents in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.
AdventureLink, a provider of around some 14,000 activities around the world, will also be feature alongside FlexTrip in Rooms & More as well as in the Travelport Universal API alongside air, hotel, car hire and other products.
Initially, agents in the US and UK will be offered the AdventureLink content to book through Rooms & More and via the Universal API, says founder and CEO, Kelly Tompkins.
Chris Zando, VP of global partnerships and strategic alliances for Travelport, adds:
"This partnership will enable AdventureLink-connected activity suppliers to reach millions of travelers via Travelport's extensive network of customers in these regions."
The adventure travel sector is said to be growing by 17% a year, outperforming the 4% growth seen in traditional leisure travel, the Adventure Travel Trade Association claims.
The plan to offer tours and activities to agents by Travelport follows news that Expediahas created what it calls the Local Expert Hub platform, a significant move in to the sector aimed at boosting the ability for suppliers to distribute and market product, and joined just a day later by a major deal between Gray Line and TourCMS.
Joining FlexTrip and AdventureLink as new partners with Travelport will be Cabforce, offering taxi reservations through the Universal Desktop.
All three companies have come through the Travelport Developer Network, a platform launched in November 2011 to encourage third parties to create tools for agents on the GDS.
Over 60 independent software developers have joined the programme since its launch, with the most significant product created so far coming in the form of the Travelport Mobile Agent, an app for agencies to access the Galileo Desktop from mobile devices, developed by Portugal-based Travel Technology & Solutions (TTS).
Travelport is planning to put Rooms & More content into the Travelport Universal API in due course.
NB: TLabs Showcase - FlexTrip. Disclosure - FlexTrip's Kremer is a Tnooz Node.