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Cairns-headquartered tourism technology group ResPax is broadening its horizons with the acquisition of New Zealand-based ResBook, the country's first online booking engine for accommodation providers, for an undisclosed sum.
ResPax was formed in 1999 by a group of tourism operators in Cairns to create a tour booking engine that tailored to their needs as "nothing existed in the market, certainly in Australia", according to CEO and co-founder Tony Bridgewater.
"Our motto is built for operators, by operators," says Bridgewater, who co-owns the company with Peter Woodward, Paula Wallace and Jim Wallace.
"There were a few [platforms] overseas, but with Cairns being a tourist mecca we had support from some of the biggest tour companies in Australia, which still continue to be our customers today, and we've built and evolved the platform over time."
ResPax is the trading name for Trinity Software Australia, and has become a leading tour management software company with connections to more than 20 reservation systems.
Last year the group plucked agent booking tool Livn from voluntary administration, acquiring its application programming interface (API) that integrates into reservations systems and connects to a global product warehouse of more than 35,000 tour offerings.
Bolstered by the Livn technology in the booking space, ResPax has now upped the ante by purchasing ResBook, including its property management system (PMS), tourism-themed websites, dynamic booking engine, and membership platform audience.
ResPax claims the deal marks a first in the Asia Pacific tourism industry as it brings tour and accommodation reservation systems under the one roof, and represent the culmination of a collaborative three-year partnership between the two companies.
The buyer says there will be no disruption to service for ResBook clients, noting the current Auckland-based team remains "fully intact" and committed to delivering the same high level of customer support, backed by the ResPax team.
"We are thrilled about this next step in ResBook's journey," say ResBook founders Gina Paladini and John Hayson.
"The combination of ResBook's accommodation and tourism software with ResPax's tour management expertise offers unparalleled opportunities for tourism operators and the whole industry.
"We are excited to see ResBook and our entire SaaS (Software as a Service) product suite grow under ResPax’s leadership and to witness the transformation this will bring to the industry."
Bridgewater says that after years of working with ResBook, the group is "thrilled" to "unite these two powerful platforms under one roof".
"With ResPax and ResBook, operators can now leverage the expertise of two industry leaders, seamlessly serving both the Tours & Activities and Accommodation markets. We are grateful to both John and Gina to be inheriting such a superb team and product," he says.
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