Business Growth Creates 16 New Jobs

Bristol based travel software specialists Multicom has continued to buck the trend this year seeing bookings increase by almost 50%, far in excess of the estimated 9.5% growth in the UK online travel market for 2009. 

While others in the industry have been shedding staff the success for Multicom has led to the creation of 16 new jobs at their Bristol HQ this year, an increase of 32% which sees the company now employing 50 people. 

Multicom were also able to confirm that it has secured sufficient new business to create a further eight jobs over the next six months.

Multicom's growth has been built on the successful development of its internet based search and booking system "FindandBook" which is now used by more than half of the UK's travel agents. 

The "Findandbook" (FAB) platform offers hundreds of airlines, over 250,000 hotels and millions of package holidays for travel agents to book and is now handling a peak of 520,000 searches per hour.

Multicom forecast that FAB will have processed more than 150 million searches per month with bookings of over 2.5 million passengers during 2009. 

Multicom Managing Director John Howell said: "It is clear from our business success this year that 'FindandBook' is the preferred choice for the majority of UK travel agents and is proving to be a valuable tool for them. 

"The increase in bookings of almost 50% has increased demand for our products and services which in turn has led to the creation of 16 new posts at Multicom which is evidence that our ambitious growth plans are on track despite the recession.  

"However, we will not be sitting on our laurels and plan to continue to invest in research and development to ensure FAB maintains its edge and Multicom retains its advantage with the introduction of new products the market demands," added Howell.