CONFERENCE Protected Trust Services Conference: Consortium plans rise in tech spend
PTS accelerates bid to create a central booking platform
P
rotected Trust Services (PTS) is aiming to spend an additional £300,000 a year on technology as
part of plans to accelerate its bid to create a central booking platform. Chief executive Daniel Landen
said the consortium would be expanding its technology team by recruiting “more quality people”, while looking to form an advisory board comprising travel agencies, tour operators and suppliers. “Technology is probably the
biggest thing we’re going for over the next three years,” he said. “I’m probably going to increase
our spend on that by about £300,000 a year.” Landen said the creation of a
central booking system has been a long-standing ambition. “That’s always been the goal, but
we haven’t achieved it yet,” he said. “We’ve probably spent the last 18
need to be guided by you on what needs to be developed. “And that’s the bit we’ve probably
missed out on. Like most tech companies, we’ve been a bit arrogant and we haven’t done enough of that. “That’s what’s stood out for us in
the last 12 months – we’ve made a mistake.” Landen said the advisory board
Daniel Landen
months building the foundations underneath the platform and making sure everything within the system actually works, to allow us to take it to the next stage.” Landen added: “What we need
to do is form an advisory board, with agents, tour operators and suppliers. “It needs to stop being us
developing technology. Instead, we
would consist of a minimum of 10 members, who will have to commit “at least a year” to the project. He added that PTS is “embracing”
AI, including the creation of automated quotes, although managing director Emma Collis underlined the value of the human touch. “We’re never going to replace
people,” she said. Landen added: “I think we’ve all
come to realise that technology is the key to what we’re all doing here. It’s part of what we do, but it’s not everything that we do.”
MEMBERS’ FEEDBACK ‘We would love to beco
PTS chief Daniel Landen told delegates at the conference he would “love” the body to become an Abta member. “There’s no update [on Abta
Rachel Deegan, RG Travel “It’s been absolutely amazing. I found the business sessions fun and informative, and a really good way to showcase the tour operators and what they can do. It wasn’t boring – it was so much better than sitting in meetings all day. I’ve met some lovely people here – everyone is so down to earth.”
Chris Wouldhave, Verini Travel (also known as The Greek Specialist) “I found the conference very useful. The suppliers’ fair was absolutely crazy. I had a lot of people coming up to me saying they didn’t even know I was a supplier. I’ve fed that back to PTS and they’ve already taken it on board. I’ve picked up a lot of good business from this conference.”
Karen Holtz, Expectations Travel “This is my first time at the PTS annual conference. It’s been really good – I’ve taken a lot away. It’s been so useful to meet some of the smaller suppliers I hadn’t heard of before. It’s also given me a lot of inspiration to hold more events with suppliers.”
membership], although we’re trying,” he said. “We’d love to work with those guys.” Landen was responding to a
question submitted in advance by an audience member. He said: “One thing about PTS
is, we’re not insular. We want to work with everybody, whether it’s Abta or Aito or any other associations. The door is open.”
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26 MARCH 2026
travelweekly.co.uk
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