TRVL.com
founder Jochem Wijnands says he has come full circle, completely
overhauling his at-times controversial B2C travel booking site into a
B2B platform that’s strictly for travel agents only, and free to join.
Wijnands
is positioning the site as an online revolution, putting the power of
the OTAs into the hands of traditional travel agents. “We want to put
travel agents centre stage,” says Wijnands, adding that a number of
retail groups in Canada have agreed to make the TRVL platform available
to their agents.
Launched in Canada in early September, the site is already getting positive feedback from the trade, he says.
It wasn’t always that way. The original TRVL.com was a B2C site that had consumers booking hotels and pocketing the commission.
By
2017 the site had alarm bells ringing at TICO, and TRVL.com, which was
not registered with TICO, was barred from operating in Ontario. “Anybody
who is selling travel in the province … must be employed by or
otherwise aligned with a registered travel agency in the province of
Ontario,” said TICO President Richard Smart at the time.
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