Travel Agency ATPI Opts to License its Software for Added Income

Global travel agency ATPI plans to sell its software to other travel agencies through a new venture TripStax.

“Our own technology stacks that we’ve built, we’re actually going to be moving into a separate division so that, as well as a travel management company arm, we’ll have our own technology arm,” ATPI CEO Ian Sinderson said.

ATPI previously invested in other technology startups. It put $1.4 million in to TapTrip and almost $350,000 in Singapore’s Greywing platform.

Ian Sinderson, the CEO of ATPI, said that this is the time for the firm to make money licensing its own platform to other companies that may not have the resources to build their own.

After launching in the coming months, its new technology arm TripStax will be a semi-autonomous company. However, TripStax was actually established in August last year and registered as Travelstax and Lemonstack in the UK.

According to the CEO, TripStax will offer core aspects of technology that ATPI has spent a lot of time building internally. There will be a complete suite of platforms, including a booking tool, profile manager, analytics, duty of care, and traveler tracking platforms.

Before ATPI, some bigger companies also licensed software as a service travel platform to third parties, such as American Express Global Business Travel, which has more than 200 agencies signed up to its GBT Partnership Solutions division.

Over the years, branching out has proved fruitful, some spin-offs can take on a life of their own.

Managed travel technology platform Atriis was created in 2013 as a joint venture of Amsalem Travel, in Israel, and Portman Travel in the UK.

xHRG saw success with developing its expense tool Fraedom. UK corporate rail booking platform Evolvi was originally built by Harry Weeks Travel, an agency founded in 1954

“If you’ve got a good solution and decent financial backing to keep developing and pushing it forwards, there’s no reason why it can’t be successful as an independent business,” Guy Snelgar of Barndello Consulting added.