NEW YORK — Travel Leaders Network plans to sunset its legacy cruise-booking platform CruisePro this year in favor of Cruise Complete, powered by Travelport Cruise & Tour.
Additionally, Travel Leaders plans to introduce a new leisure booking tool powered by Certify Travel, giving its members the opportunity to book air, car and hotel.
Cory Voss, Travel Leaders Network’s vice president of technology, announced the new tools Tuesday during a media briefing.
Voss said CruisePro has “been around for quite some time.” Travel Leaders decided to partner with Travelport to bring a white-labeled version of its Travelport Cruise & Tour product to its members. He called the product “well known in the marketplace.”
“We’re assigning it a new name, Cruise Complete,” he said. “We think that represents exactly what the members are going to get with that tool.”
Cruise Complete’s development is currently underway. In addition to its base functionality, Voss said, Cruise Complete will have some unique features for Travel Leaders.
A group of 18 to 20 agencies will kick off testing in the first quarter of 2023, with a launch to the full network scheduled for the second quarter.
According to Voss, the test group will help Travel Leaders identify training opportunities.
Cruise Complete will be totally web-based, so advisors can access the platform anywhere in the world, according to Voss. They will be able to sign onto the program from the Agent Universe extranet and see live inventory and pricing. Members will be able to select up to four cabins.
A “Fast Sell” feature enables agents to easily search for particular sailings and enables them to make post-booking modifications.
Voss said it will offer similar but “more robust” content than CruisePro.
A new leisure booking tool
Travel Leaders Group president John Lovell called the forthcoming leisure online booking tool “a long time coming.”
According to Voss, Travel Leaders Network has partnered with Certify Travel to create the tool, which is expected to be brought to market this year.
The tool will accommodate a growing number of independent contractors as well as agencies that aren’t GDS users, Voss said.
“This gives them a solution to book air through a point-and-click type interface. Much easier to understand, much easier to use,” he said.
The booking tool will enable advisors to book air, car and hotel. It will support NDC content from ATPCO, Travel Fusion and GDSs. Travel Leaders’ air desk will support advisors booking air.
The leisure booking tool is not replacing any existing technology and is additive to current offerings.
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