We're excited to announce two new marketplaces that have been added to TrekkSoft's Channel Manager - Tiqets and Civitatis.

Tiqets is the leading provider for tickets to top attractions, events, tours and activities while Civitatis is the largest online travel marketplace for the Spanish speaking market. 

For those unfamiliar with these marketplaces, here's a snapshot of each one and what your listing could look like on their platforms.

Tiqets

Founded in 2014, Dutch company Tiqets is on a mission to simplify travel by allowing consumers to book tickets to attractions, entertainment and events all from their mobile app. Tiqets got their big break when they secured partnerships with large museums in Europe including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Available on both iOS and Android, the app focuses on in-destination last-minute bookers, providing consumers access to top attractions and activities. Customers can show up at the time of your tour and have their tickets and QR codes saved on their phones.

In May 2017, the company secured $17 million in funding which has further fuelled its growth into the tours and activities sector. In early 2018, the company named Ken Frohling as CEO Americas (who we interviewed two years ago when he was Vice President of Business Development at Viator).

In their press release, the company stated that: "In the newly created role, Frohling will lead expansion and operations across the Americas with responsibility for managing the fast-growing regional team."

While the company is focusing on building their supply networks in Europe and North America, they serve consumers in over 150 countries, in seven languages.

Read more: Forget printed tickets, why not use mobile tickets instead?

Which suppliers would benefit from working with Tiqets?

For suppliers who like working with technology, especially with mobile tickets, Tiqets is one to consider. Since they're also expanding both their supplier network and their consumer market in America, this could be an exciting time for suppliers to get on board and perhaps, get ahead of the crowd. 

Here's an example of TrekkSoft's customer listing of a trip to the Eiffel Tower. 

Civitatis

Civitatis, founded in 2009, is the leading online marketplace for the Spanish-speaking market. With over a half a million customers each year, they offer 3,900 services around the world, including transfers, tours, activities and day-trips.

To improve the consumer's overall shopping experience, the company recently freshened their brand and their corporate image, and gave their iOS and Android apps a facelift as well. Londres.es, Dublin.es and Paris.es are some of their top performing sites since the relaunch.

At the moment, Civitatis is rapidly growing and expanding. In 2016, the company saw an increase in sales by 30% and recorded an all time high of €17 million, serving more than 530,000 customers.

Which suppliers would benefit from working with Civitatis?

Needless to say, Civitatis is perfect for operators who provide tours in Spanish. According to the World Economic Forum, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, just after Mandarin. If 437 million people in the world speak Spanish, as a supplier, you have 437 million potential guests. 

Okay, maybe not all 437 million people but you get the gist - the market is huge. 

Here's an example of TrekkSoft's customer listing their Spanish tour of Amsterdam's Red Light District on the platform. 

 So, what do these integrations really mean?

When a marketplace integrates with a booking system like TrekkSoft, it allows them access to your real-time inventory via our Channel Manager (only with your permission). 

Previously, when working with marketplaces, companies without a Channel Manager would have to manually accept or reject bookings from marketplaces, usually via email. If you're working with one marketplace, that doesn't seem like a problem. But if you're a growing company working with 2 - 3 marketplaces (as most of our customers do), communication can get tricky and quickly get out of hand in the high season. 

The second issue faced by suppliers is their ability to manage their inventory. Without access to your real-time availability, suppliers will have to allocate a fixed amount of spaces for each tour to each marketplace. What if the marketplace doesn't sell out those spaces? What if a different sales channel if performing better and requires more spaces? Without a Channel Manager, that's also a complicated admin task to stay on top of. 

Real-time inventory allows your distribution partners access to your availabilities and automate booking confirmation as well as inventory management. You'll no longer have to send multiple emails to marketplaces and update spreadsheet and log books to keep track of your tours. Each booking comes straight to your TrekkSoft dashboard with all the details you need about your customers. 

Read more: Channel Manager 101: How to connect to online marketplaces to reach a larger audience

As a TrekkSoft customer, you can apply for these marketplaces from the Channel Manager in TrekkSoft. Go to your admin desk and select "Marketplaces". 

Scroll down till you see Civitatis or Tiqets and click on "Apply". You'll be shown the terms and conditions of working with these platforms.

Once you've reviewed and accepted the terms, you'll then be redirected to their Supplier sign up page. After completing the signup process, an Account Manager from the marketplace will reach out to you. 

Download your free copy of the latest Latin America Trend Report:

*Note that TrekkSoft has no influence over a marketplace's decision to list your products or the time it takes for them to contact you. We only offer an API connection between TrekkSoft's booking system and the marketplace.