Currency clarity for travel businesses
We are proud to partner with ABTA, the leading trade association for UK travel agents, tour operators and the wider travel industry. For over 70 years, ABTA have helped their members run successful travel businesses through expert guidance, advice and support.
Our partnership underlines our long-standing commitment to the travel industry, helping to implement FX strategies that protect against the currency risk that exists between booking and departure.
HOW WE HELP TRAVEL BUSINESSES
- Our products & services
- Testimonials
International payment requirements for travel businesses can be extremely complex. With multiple suppliers that require time-sensitive payments in a range of currencies, a growing travel firm can quickly become overwhelmed by the size of the task.
Having worked closely with several airlines and tour operators, we know how important it is that currency risk is managed between booking and departure so that profit margins are protected against adverse market movements.
Conducting multiple foreign payments across a vast range of currencies and destinations can be a time-consuming activity. Detail is vital and manual processes are simply not robust enough for a growing business.
Our Mass Payment solution allows travel businesses to upload one CSV file with all payment data and our platform will do the rest. With multiple payments being executed in a single process, not only is it more efficient but the risk of error is greatly reduced.
With an average lag of up to 6 months between booking and departure, travel businesses have a huge amount of risk to manage in this period to protect profit margins.
Our bespoke and flexible range of hedging products enable businesses to mitigate this risk and ensure financial objectives are met. Whether through removing the risk entirely through a passive approach or hedging against individual sales, the correct strategy is a key financial tool for all travel businesses.
Businesses that operate globally across multiple jurisdictions can benefit greatly from insights into economic factors that may impact exchange rates.
When a country’s currency depreciates, demand for travel in that country may increase. As a travel business, having access to dedicated analysts who can provide these insights can ultimately help define the sales and pricing strategies, helping the business to flow seamlessly.
“Having Universal Partners manage our foreign exchange has changed our business for the better. Given the number of payments we regularly make, the efficient payment technology they have created is key in improving our business’s operational payment process. Working together has undoubtedly contributed to our growth over the last few years.”
Guy Novik, CEO – US Air Tours
“Protected Trust Services have been utilising the services of Universal Partners since 2018. Since our relationship started, our international payments processes have been extremely smooth. UP make multiple payments per month in multiple currencies on behalf of the PTS members. UP are not only a payment provider but also a trusted partner and fundamental part of our finance team. Their services help to remove a huge part of our workload and are deemed an integral part of the PTS product offering.”
Mark Sutton, Managing Director – PTS
MATTHEW TURTON, ACCOUNT DIRECTOR AT ABTA:
“Since joining ABTA Partnership, Dhaval and the team have taken a proactive approach to the partnership, regularly sharing specialist expertise and knowledge of the foreign exchange sector with our members in the travel industry through our events programme. We recommend Universal Partners as a valued and trusted Partner.”
The ABTA Travel Convention
Since becoming an ABTA partner we have regularly attended their flagship event, the ABTA Travel Convention.
The three-day conference brings together some of the biggest names in travel along with associated partners and affiliates for a range of talks from guest speakers, bringing the opportunity to network and discuss the future of travel and tourism.
2023: Bodrum, Turkey
20th October – 1st November 2023
This year the event will be returning to Turkey for the third time after Antalya in 2012 and Istanbul back in 1996.
This year’s theme will be Unleashing New Potential. Insightful discussions and thought-provoking presentations will aim to reveal new and untapped potential within the sector.
Universal Partners will attend to continue supporting travel businesses through market insights and strategic planning that help mitigate the risks posed by currency volatility.
2022: Marrakech, Morocco
10th October – 12th October 2022
After the lifting of Covid restrictions, the event finally returned to its original form after some time online and in a hybrid format.
The theme was Travel’s New Landscape as the industry’s leaders delivered future-focuses content aimed at navigating the new landscape for travel together.
Our video was played at the event and focused on how travel businesses can fight back against currency volatility, eliminating it as a risk to their future growth.