PHOTO: Elizabeth Crabill of Travel Bound.

European travel giant Kuoni’s recent restructuring doesn’t much impact U.S. travel agents, except for the positive results of increased investments in the products U.S. retailers sell through its Travel Bound subsidiary, says Elizabeth Crabill, president of GTA North America. She points to a new app that will enable agents to earn commissions on all aspects of a tour — even when clients add components while en route.

GTA’s (and Travel Bound’s) parent company, Zurich, Switzerland-based Kuoni Travel recently went through a ground-shifting restructuring. In North America, however, it’s business as usual — and very likely for the better, as Crabill says.

She talked to Vacation Agent about what the changes mean for Travel Bound and travel agents.

What will the changes at Kuoni mean for U.S. travel agents?

Kuoni is exiting its European B2C operations in order to focus on its B2B divisions, including FIT and groups business with Travel Bound. The countries that are affected by the change are the U.K., Benelux, Hong Kong, China and India. It will not affect anything in the U.S. or Canada. We want to clarify that Travel Bound and the Americas businesses are not part of that change. Our businesses continue as usual, and, in fact, Kuoni’s decision to close that sector of its business [in Europe] is going to have a positive impact on Travel Bound’s business as further investments will now be made to push our business forward.

What investments are you talking about?

One example is the upcoming introduction of our exclusive Travel Bound Itinerary Builder and mobile app. This proprietary tool will elevate Travel Bound agents to the next level in serving clients and competing against the OTA giants. Our Itinerary Builder takes the itinerary that an agent creates on the Travel Bound website and displays it in an attractive client-facing format that is viewable on desktop, smartphone or tablet. The agents add their agency logo, so it’s clear the app and itinerary came from them. And the tool is 100 percent free for clients.

How does this tool benefit travel agents?

There are many benefits for both the agent and the traveler. Our launch version of the Itinerary Builder allows the agent to create an itinerary with as little as one Travel Bound component booked on the Travel Bound website; to quickly and easily assemble the client’s itinerary in an attractive format, branded with the agency logo; to display hotel components with photos, descriptions and booking details; to manually add non-Travel Bound elements, such as flights or cruise bookings; to add personal notes for the client; and to edit itineraries and view them in list view or calendar view.

What are the benefits for the agent’s clients?

When an agent gives them this tool they can interface with their itinerary via desktop or on their smartphone or tablet via our proprietary app; view their itinerary offline; synchronize with their device’s calendar function; and receive event notifications.

And that’s just the launch version. Subsequent releases will offer an API interface to automatically pull in third-party bookings, add click-to-call functionality enabling the client to reach the agent, city guides, add flight and hotel check-in, and enable sharing via social media.

Perhaps most importantly, agents will be able to send their clients suggested activities and products to book, plus on-site tour and transfer booking options. If a traveler adds anything, the trip price will automatically recalculate. And everything is commissionable to the agent.

This tool is based on input received directly from our travel agents over the past year. We are excited to roll this out in 2015, and look forward to agents’ feedback on this tool developed by us, exclusively for agents and their clients.

For more information www.travelbound.com.