“Doing more with less,” is a common theme as we roll into Spring 2009. Most SYTA operators will tell you that the number of group bookings is good but group size is down. Bottom line, it’s not going to be a banner year.

Taking time to plan now for 2009-2010 can pay big dividends especially when it comes to office automation. TourTools® can dramatically improve your sales process and can introduce efficiencies that will spread throughout the office – saving you time and making you more profitable.

Proposals In Minutes

What do you get when you combine the power, security and reliability of TourTools reservations and operations software with the vast network of the Web? You get TourTools Online, an array of web-browser tools to connect to your clients, deliver buying opportunities and provide fulfillment services.

In an effort to make it easier for our clients, new and established to reach us, we have implemented a centralized phone system.

John Kamm, CEO of TourTech Systems, Inc, was appointed treasurer of the SYTA Youth Foundation at its regular meeting held recently at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. CO. The Foundation is the philanthropic sister organization of the Student Youth Travel Association

One of the easiest ways to fatten up your bottom-line is to offer travel insurance to your travelers. Whether you provide it as an opt-out option for your tours or simply provide the applications along with the reservation documents, commission on the premiums can add up fast.

TourTech Systems (www.tourtools.com), the creator of TourTools®--a software solution which automates most aspects of a tour operator’s business--announced recently that its client Steve Furgal’s International Tennis Tours, Inc. (www.tours4tennis.com) completed its TourTools upgrade and is immediately realizing tangible benefits.

It is generally acknowledged that computer technology is getting more powerful and more reliable day by day. This means that when one of our computer’s parts fail, we are more surprised and mortified than ever. A failure can mean the loss or destruction of data and it is most certainly not a good thing. Whether the data are photos or music files on your personal laptop or the last 20 years of customer activity stored on your business server, its loss can be, shall we say, problematic.

Except for the airlines and their central reservations systems, the travel industry has never been accused of being on the leading edge of the technology curve. Computer automation in the offices of tour operators was particularly slow to catch on.