SEATTLE -- TraveLease, which offers technology to tour operators
and other travel companies, signed its first customer, Brennan
Tours, a Seattle-based escorted-tour company.
TraveLease was founded last year by Tom Easthope, a former
general manager of Sunmakers and the former head of the Newton
Group, the technology subsidiary of Global Leisure, the parent
company of Sunmakers.
TraveLease has a contract with Fourth Dimension Software of
Redwood City, Calif., to offer the Contour travel distribution
software that automates the sale and reservations of leisure travel
products, including vacation packages and customized escorted
tours.
Under its agreement with TraveLease, Brennan Tours will
implement the Contour system, with the core software residing at
the TraveLease offices, where it will be maintained and supported,
said Easthope.
TraveLease's "experienced staff, first-rate technical
infrastructure, transaction-based pricing arrangement and
comprehensive package of services, offers an unbeatable value,"
said Sean Brennan of Brennan Tours, in a statement.
Fourth Dimension Software created the internal reservations
system for Classic Custom Vacations and DER Tours. Its Contour
system is being installed at large travel firms such as Abercrombie
& Kent and Grand Circle, which purchased the software.
TraveLease's role as a marketer for the Contour software is to
promote the system to small and midsize travel companies and act as
a service bureau, according to Easthope.
"It's very expensive software" that is prohibitively expensive
for modestly sized companies, he said.
Instead of purchasing the Contour system, which costs about $2
million, companies sign with TraveLease and pay for the use of
Contour on a per-transaction basis.
In its role as a service bureau, TraveLease provides the
technology and automation for multimedia, communications and
reservations processing.
"We become an extension of these smaller tour companies' IT
departments," said Easthope. Implementation at Brennan Tours is
expected to be complete by the end of March.