Tour Amigo and Airwallex explore new frontiers with global payments partnership

Tour Amigo is a first-of-its-kind solution, bringing new levels of efficiencies to multi-day tour operators. Historically an industry with fragmented operations that often relies on cash payments to suppliers and international bank transfers, Tour Amigo provides a flexible, ‘off the shelf’ solution to operators that can grow with them. 

“For the operators themselves, they’re going from operating on spreadsheets, pieces of paper and outdated legacy systems – we’ve even walked into some offices where they’ve actually got all the inventory on a floor-to-ceiling window,” says Tour Amigo Chief Marketing Officer Toby Hughes.

Tour Amigo is able to offer one system to solve these processes and, with a new partnership with Airwallex, they’re now able to offer an even more powerful platform experience.

“As a tour operator business owner myself, I know firsthand the difficulties and high costs that come with paying suppliers in various currencies and regions,” says CEO Murray Decker.

Murray Decker

CEO, Tour Amigo

“Airwallex’s ability to simplify payments for travel operators who are paying multiple suppliers in different currencies, combined with Tour Amigo's software for operators, is a complete game changer and transforms the way operators can run their businesses.”

Seeking payments expertise

The Tour Amigo team are experts when it comes to simplifying operations for tour operators. Part of what has solidified their growth trajectory is an ability to identify partnership opportunities; how can they make their offering stronger by leveraging the expertise of other innovative companies?

They knew that streamlining supplier payments for operators would set them apart amongst their competitors.

“When I say Tour Amigo is the first software as a service (SaaS) out there, there are other platforms and other tech providers for these sorts of customers,” says Toby. “But they’re very much custom-built solutions, they’re not off the shelf. These other tech companies don’t provide centralised supplier payments - so it’s a unique differentiation that Tour Amigo is able to provide.”

“We know that Airwallex are really interested and see a great opportunity in the travel industry and they’re completely open to partnering with new companies – Tour Amigo is the exact same. We’re always looking at how we can partner with new companies, to offer something different to our customers.”

Toby Hughes

CMO, Tour Amigo

“We see a partnership through Airwallex as giving us a unique product because they have the expertise in payables. It’s something we’ve looked at for a very long time and we just don’t have the expertise to do it, so finding a partner like Airwallex was very attractive.”

One powerful platform

Such a huge part of Tour Amigo’s value proposition is the idea of meeting every operational need for operators - in one single place.

“One of the key things that we’re trying to steer these operators and our customers away from is having multiple systems that they have to keep accessing just to run their business,” says Toby.

Airwallex helps Tour Amigo’s customers with an end-to-end solution where they don’t have to go to an external banking platform to make payments, which in many cases can be quite manual.

“A key benefit in bringing on Airwallex is it brings the payables aspect onto our centralised system. It really aligns well with our key message.”

A cost-effective way to pay suppliers

As well as elevating the all-in-one experience that Tour Amigo’s clients get when they use the platform, Airwallex is able to help them save on FX for their international money movement - a common occurrence in the travel industry!

“There are other payment solutions out there where they’ve got 2% or 3% FX rates on their transactions – or if you’ve got operators who are trying to pay via bank transfers they’ve got really high transfer costs just to try and pay their suppliers internationally,” says Toby. 

This can lead to tour operators falling back on inefficient processes like bank transfer payments, which can come with significant fees and be a time consuming process. In some circumstances, suppliers may even rely on making cash payments to suppliers.

New solutions, new opportunities

Streamlining processes is one thing, but the introduction of the Airwallex integration also opens up new opportunities for Tour Amigo customers. 

Toby Hughes

CMO, Tour Amigo

“Because Airwallex offers such a vast global coverage of payouts - I think it’s over 150 countries and over 60 currencies - that enables our customers to pay suppliers in quite unique destinations."

“They’ve probably never had an easy way to pay those suppliers before. So because of that they’re able to look at expanding their product offering.”

“Let’s say previously it was too difficult for me as an operator to make payments to Japanese suppliers. Well now with Airwallex I’ve got that ability to make easy and simple payouts to Japanese suppliers.”

“I can actually go out and start expanding my product offering and seeing how I can bring on Japanese products and Japanese itineraries; I can start reaching out to a whole new customer base and I can offer my existing customers new experiences that I’ve not been able to offer before.”

Exposure to great tools across financial operations

As well as the incredible capabilities of Payments and Transfers, Tour Amigo customers will be able to tap into Airwallex’s other features, including Borderless Cards.

“Tour Amigo are actually Airwallex Cards users ourselves and we have been for a number of years, so I know how easy they are to use,” says Toby.  

“We’ve got some quite large clients who’ve got quite a few staff members who I know use company cards, so I think being able to provide them exposure into other Airwallex products such as Cards could be really helpful for them.” 

Looking to the next adventure

While Tour Amigo looks to continue its incredible growth trajectory, Airwallex will be supporting every endeavour. As well as helping create new opportunities, Airwallex also provides reliable operational capabilities - something that Tour Amigo champions for their customers. 

“As we do get larger, even now, we’re really starting to clamp down and get the message across about data security and compliance. It’s important for operators to be conscious of this across their business, from how they manage suppliers to how they send customers data to their suppliers but also with payments.”

Toby Hughes

CMO, Tour Amigo

“So having reliable payment processing with Airwallex is something that, as we mature as a company and bring on more customers, we’ve got to make sure that we’re confident in. Being able to rely on Airwallex is something that’s going to be really important as we grow.”