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UK’s largest technology platform for travel entrepreneurs announce Travel Counsellors has announced the acquisition of award-winning travel technology platform, Planisto, and its key development team for an undisclosed sum.
The deal is Travel Counsellors' second acquisition in its nearly three-decade history, following the successful deal of Holidaysplease in March 2023.
The move is said to cement the company's focus and investment in the premium travel market and comes off the back of record trading with annual bookings reaching £933 million, representing a 23% increase from the previous year.
Planisto is a proprietary, cloud-native technology platform, that provides travel advisors the ability to create and manage complex, personalised itineraries for customers, "highly complementary" to Travel Counsellors’ existing digital assets.
The deal follows the announcement made at the firm's annual global conference in November, where it revealed a £15 million tech investment for the upcoming year.
It also revealed a particular emphasis on tailor-made itinerary software powered into their digital, personal platform, Phenix.
The integration of Planisto’s software into Phenix will accelerate the tech development roadmap and build on these existing plans by adding proven market-leading functionality for the benefit of its Travel Counsellors globally.
Many TCs based in Netherlands and Belgium have already used the Planisto software. In addition to acquiring Planisto's platform and intellectual property, the deal includes the integration of Planisto's creators into the Travel Counsellors community.
They will bring "shared entrepreneurial skills and values" to enhance the company's senior technology talent with a "focus on driving future booking journey and platform development".
Steve Byrne, CEO of Travel Counsellors, said: “We are delighted to have acquired such a highly regarded and award-winning technology platform in Planisto - which has been on our radar for some time - as well as the hugely talented development team behind its success.
"This acquisition perfectly aligns with our vision and passion of building a community of the very best travel entrepreneurs who provide the human touch empowered by state-of-the-art technology to deliver exceptional, bespoke and highly personalised travel experiences for customers.
“In addition to strengthening our proprietary tech and talent, the deal will further accelerate our current development roadmap for our digital, personal platform Phenix and enhance the end-customer booking experience.
"The acquisition supports our growth strategy as we accelerate towards being a £1bn+ transaction value platform in the very near future."
He added: "We are committed to invest in our scalable technology and operating model, and we continue to look forward to the future with excitement and confidence.”
