The Enterprise Playbook: How to Choose Outbound Tour Operator Software

A new central platform will affect every part of your business, and a decision made in isolation is a decision that fails from the very start. Bringing leaders from key departments to the table early isn’t just about collaboration; it’s also a wise way to lower risk. In fact, a major study on IT projects found that active executive support is one of the most vital prerequisites for success, while not having enough user involvement is a major reason why projects fall flat.

Get your leaders together and ask them the tough questions:

• Operations: What are the real problems behind how we plan itineraries and book trips? What kinds of manually caused mistakes cost us the most time and money?
• Finance: What financial data do we need for real-time reporting that we can’t get right now? How can we simplify the reconciliation of multiple currencies?
• IT: What are our non-negotiable requirements for security, compliance, and integration? How do we plan to get rid of legacy systems?
• Marketing and Sales: What customer data do we need to run the personalized campaigns like our competitors?

Once everyone is on the same page, you can go from talking about existing problems to setting strategic goals. The question changes from “What is broken?” to “Where do we need to be in three years, and what technology do we need to get there?”

Let’s consider a theoretical example. One of the biggest tour companies in Australia has two different brands: a high-end, luxury brand and a volume-focused, regional travel brand. They have been working on different systems for years. Their main goal now is not just to “upgrade software” but to get to “unified operational efficiency”, which means they need one platform that could handle all of their supplier contracts, pricing rules, and branding, as well as send their head office all of their financial data. This one defined goal rules out dozens of simpler systems right away and directs their search toward real enterprise-grade platforms, like GP Travel Enterprise from GP Solutions.

Lastly, when choosing the right outbound tour operator software, you’ll need a full list of all the systems that your new solution will have to interact with. No software is an isolated island in the world of global connectivity, and your main tour operator platform has to be the hub of your digital ecosystem. If you get the idea of the status of things, this will be your first step in digital transformation, and it will determine what integration tools you need.

Create a visual map covering:

• Financial systems: Your accounting software (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Xero, MYOB);
• Distribution channels: GDSs, channel managers, and partner booking portals;
• Payment gateways: Every system you use to process customer payments.
• Marketing platforms: Your CRM or marketing automation tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.).
• Proprietary systems: Any in-house databases or tools that are critical to your operations.

Your platform must be well-fitted for complex, multi-step tasks and thus outperform simpler systems. This means that you should easily handle highly customized, multi-country FITs along with big group departures. A wise choice of software will fix the key pain of all tour operators — the operational drag of manual processes. A 2022 Skift report said that operators still have a hard time being efficient and making money because they don’t have enough automation for managing itineraries and prices.

When choosing outbound tour operator software, look for:

• A dynamic packaging engine like that from GP Solutions that can build complex travel plans in minutes instead of days;
• A solid pricing and rules engine that can automatically handle different markups, commissions, and transactions in several currencies;
• The ability to manage both individual (FIT) and group travel workflows within one system.

A standalone system is a dead end in today’s market. Your outbound tour operator platform should be the ground control of all the technology you use. A strong and well-documented travel application programming interface (API) is the key to this issue. The API is like a universal language that lets your core software talk to all of your other critical systems without any problems. The main trend in travel technology is toward systems that work together, which gives companies the flexibility they need to stay competitive.

Ask for an API that can easily connect to your:

• Financial and ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Xero);
• Global Distribution Systems (GDS);
• Payment gateways and other third-party booking channels.

An outbound tour operator may work with thousands of suppliers, each with its own contracts, tiered pricing, allocations, release dates, and payment schedules. A basic database won’t cut it. When choosing the right outbound tour operator software, you need a strong management module that brings all of this together and automates as much of the relationship as possible, from the first booking request to the final reconciliation.

Standard reports show you what happened. Business Intelligence tells you why something happened and what you should do next. In a business setting, being able to make decisions based on data is essential. McKinsey has found that data-driven companies are not only more likely to lure customers, but they are also much more likely to make money.

Don’t settle for predefined reports. Demand:

• Dashboards that can be customized for different roles, like a CEO dashboard that shows profit margin by destination and an operations dashboard that shows team capacity;
• The ability to quickly answer complicated questions by digging deeper into your data.

This is why platforms like our GP Travel Enterprise have a strong core that takes care of these complicated financial and operational tasks and sends clean, accurate data to the BI layer right away. These features are what makes our enterprise-scale platform different from a tool for small businesses. They are what makes you efficient, able to grow, and have a long-term edge over your competitors.

Your business is intricate, and you can’t afford to be the person who teaches someone else. It’s imperative to see proof that a potential partner has successfully helped businesses like yours with problems of the same size and complexity. You need proof, not just vague promises. This is normal for major B2B decisions. Research shows that more than 90% of B2B buyers are influenced by peer reviews and case studies.

Ask for:

• Case studies from clients who work in the tour operator field (check GP Solutions’ portfolio as a way of example);
• Direct references from clients who are about the same size as you. Make sure to ask them about the implementation process and the quality of post-launch support.

A bad implementation can ruin a great development project. You need a partner who has a clear, organized, and open process for getting you from signing the contract to a successful go-live. No clear plan is a red flag. Reputable providers will be able to explain how they work, whether it’s Agile, a hybrid model, or another structured method.

Ask to see:

• An example of an implementation plan with clear steps and milestones;
• The qualifications of the project manager who will work on your account full-time;
• A clear process for data migration from your legacy systems.

You’re putting money into your software’s future, not just its present. A true technology partner is always coming up with new ideas and looking to the future. If a product doesn’t change, it will become obsolete, and your business will go down with it. Travel AI development is a big part of the current wave of innovation. Industry experts say that Generative AI could change the way we make travel plans and how tour operators treat their customers.

Ask your potential vendor straight out:

• “What do you have planned for your product in the next 18 months?”
• “How are you investing in R&D and using new technologies like AI?”
• “How do you get feedback from clients to help you plan future updates?”

When everything you do is on one platform, support is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. For a business, regular email support from 9 to 5 isn’t enough. You need a promise of service. This promise can be formalized in a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that spells out the level of service you can expect.

Find a partner that:

• Guarantees uptime (for example, 99.9% or more);
• Sets times for responding to and fixing problems of different levels of severity;
• Provides access to a dedicated account manager who knows your business and can help you with strategy.

A partner who can confidently and clearly follow through on all four of these points is someone who is ready for a serious, long-term relationship.