About Tourism Technology Solutions

Tourism Technology Solutions is the result of my learnings, experiences, successes and failures using technology as a tourism operator. I've been working in travel and tourism my entire career and have seen it come a long way. What I love doing most is working with tourism business owners and operators to help them use tech tools to make their businesses run better.

Kia Ora, my name is Andrew Wells, I'm the owner of Tourism Technology Solutions.

Early days in travel

My first ever job in travel was working as a business travel sales rep in Southern California in 1991, I wore a teal blazer and used a flip chart for sales presentations! Once we’d won the business I’d write down all the details then get on a payphone to call them into the office to make the bookings.

By the mid 1990s I was working as a travel agent at the Flight Centre in Australia, by now we had Global Distribution Systems like Amadeus and Galileo to request our flights and packages. They weren't very user friendly and looked like computer code, all the asterixes and slashes had to be in exactly the right place otherwise your booking didn't work.

Introduction to New Zealand tourism

When I returned to New Zealand in 1996 to start working in Queenstown at Kiwi Discovery, we used to receive faxes from wholesalers, had manual trip sheets and all sightseeing bookings were done over the phone. But change was in the wings, I remember meeting a young tech whiz who was developing a booking system for Shotover Jet, which meant we could make bookings on our computer screen and not have to call them. That guy was called Erik and their company became IBIS.

Early days of tourism tech

Now things were getting interesting in tourism technology - by the early 2000s I was working at Ultimate Hikes and I saw the first ever tourism websites being developed. We’d seen how much online business Air New Zealand was doing and there was no reason that iconic activities like the Milford and Routeburn Tracks couldn’t do the same. I remember writing and loading content on the first ever Ultimate Hikes website. At that time, websites were basically online brochures, lots of info, some photographs and maps with the call to action to phone the reservation line or see your travel agent!

My own tourism businesses - HikingGuys.co.nz and New Zealand Trails

By the mid 2000s I’d launched a new online friendly brand for my guided day walks from Christchurch, HikingGuys.co.nz. Our lead trip was a really popular one day tour out to Arthur’s Pass National Park, combining a guided walk in the Southern Alps with the TranzAlpine. Everyone was loving the tour but after a couple of years attending Trenz and sales missions overseas, I wasn’t getting the traction I needed with the trade channels so I started looking for another way.

This was when website platforms like Wordpress and booking engines like Bookit hit the market, meaning small operators could publish their own websites and take bookings directly, and the best bit, get paid in advance without paying commission to travel agents. This was what I was looking for so I dived in to learn as much as I could about how these tools worked and launched a new website and booking system for HikingGuys.co.nz. It worked and I was so happy to see my tours filling up with direct bookings and everyone paying in advance.

In 2013, with two other partners, we launched a new small group guided walking tour company called New Zealand Trails. Our plan was to deliver a once in a lifetime itinerary in a high quality, small group guided walking tour. We didn’t want to go through agents, so we invested in a good website on the Drupal CMS platform and set about making the best website and online bookings experience we could. It worked and within two seasons our tours were fully booked with close to zero agent bookings, all the business came directly to us via our website.

Specializing in Tourism Technology

In 2016 I moved into tourism technology full time, working with small group tour operator MoaTrek on their website and online platforms. During this time I worked extensively in the Drupal CMS with the web developers and other specialists.  Our main achievements here were relaunching MoaTrek.com and spinning off a new site for the domestic tour operations, MoaTours.co.nz This proved to be a very valuable asset when international borders were closed, MoaTours was the leading tour operator in New Zealand and that website was the main sales tool.

Working with Ngāi Tahu Tourism

In 2021 I moved to a Project Management role with Ngāi Tahu Tourism, New Zealand’s leading tourism group with iconic experiences such as Shotover Jet, Dart River Jet, Franz Josef Glacier Guides, Dark Sky Project, Hollyford Wilderness Experience, Hukafalls Jet, Agrodome, National Kiwi Hatchery and All Blacks Experience.  

The project was called Tourism Transformation, and was a full changeover to a new booking and retail system at all nine businesses in the group.  I worked as the Project Manager from 2021 - 2024, responsible for leading the Project Team, working with the technology partner IBIS and each of the NTT businesses through to launch. I was also responsible for Financial and KPI reporting to the Governance and Executive leadership teams at both Ngāi Tahu Tourism & Holdings.

This project came to conclusion with the successful launch at the final sites (Agrodome and National Kiwi Hatchery) in September 2024.

Personal Life

Outside of work, I enjoy tinkering with open source software like Linux and am self hosting more and more of my own services now. To unwind I enjoy ocean swimming and exploring the countryside with my dog, Mocha. 

Get in touch now to talk about your next Tourism Project

Working on my own businesses in the early days of online bookings and website hosting really showed me how powerful technology tools can be for tourism businesses. What I love doing most is working with tourism business owners and operators who are motivated to use technology to help their business run better.

What's your next big tourism project? 

Set up a call now to tell us all about it and how we can help.