The Budget Travel has signed an exclusive, three year deal with BlueSky to use its itour reservation system. The search for the technology partner began last October, just after Budget Travel was bought by The Primera Travel Group.

BlueSky’s Oracle based technology is completely replacing the previous system from Anite.

“What was in place when Primera acquired Budget needed to be upgraded.” says Daði Ingólfsson, IT director for Primera. “We have great plans for Budget and we needed to bring in a brand new, robust and user friendly system to take the business forward. BlueSky was simply the best available,” he added.

The 1.5 million Euro deal was signed at the Travel Technology Show.

“A number of solutions were considered both in the UK and Europe to find the right technology partner,” says Nick Fowler, Sales Director of BlueSky Travel Systems. “We are delighted to be working with Budget Travel and Primera. We are implementing the itour product along with a number of other innovative enhancements. It’s an exciting challenge for BlueSky.”

BlueSky’s technology platform has a reputation for providing flexible functionality. “This has been the key to our success,” says Fowler. “The way itour is designed allows it to be adapted and enhanced as the market develops. itour can move with the times and react to changing trends in the travel business like dynamic packaging and dynamic pricing.”

Budget Travel, which is based in Dublin, was founded in 1975 and has a 34% market share in Ireland. The company operates 31 offices in Ireland as well as 15 franchises. More than 350.000 passengers travel with the company every year and annual turnover is expected to be close to 160 million Euro this year.

The Primera Travel Group in Scandinavia operates travel agencies and tour operating companies in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Ireland and Estonia. Last year the group took more than one million passengers to destinations all over the world. It‘s turnover is in excess of 650 million euros.

Primera Travel Group, a privately owned Icelandic travel company acquired Budget Travel, Ireland’s leading tour operator from TUI AG. TUI AG is one of Europe’s largest travel and tourism groups, recently merged with First Choice plc.