Revolutionized TUI’s Fragmented Payment Ecosystem with One Payment Platform

5 min

IN A NUTSHELL

85 %

Access to NL market share by setting up ideal payment method

97 %

Captured/authorized transactions

114 M+

Weekly transaction volume

About TUI

TUI Group, a global leader in the travel and hospitality sector, serves over 20 million customers across more than 100 destinations worldwide. Through its partnership with Ciklum, TUI is driving digital transformation to deliver a world-class, scalable digital travel experience within a multi-vendor ecosystem.

EMPLOYEES

65,000+

LOCATION

Global

INDUSTRY

Travel

01

What Was the Challenge

TUI historically operated in siloed technology stacks across different source markets, leading to a fragmented and challenging-to-maintain payments landscape. The project aimed to centralize and internalize TUI’s complex network of payment systems and providers without disrupting its existing infrastructure. Challenges included managing multiple complex PSP integrations and acquirer relationships, lack of reusable capabilities even within regions, limited commercial leverage due to fragmented transaction volumes, and the need to integrate new selling channels with diverse payment technology platforms.

Priorities focused on delivering seamless payment experiences globally, reducing transaction costs, and ensuring scalability for emerging technologies like dynamic acquirer routing and dynamic currency conversion.

02

How We Solved the Problem

Ciklum’s partnership with TUI resulted in the successful development and deployment of One Payment Platform (OPP). This unified all source market and tenant selling platforms into a world-class internal Payment Technology – remarkably flexible, adaptable, and primed for reuse. The implementation extends across various selling contexts, encompassing all TUI travel experiences and products.

Ciklum’s strategic partnership helped TUI design and implement a custom One Payment Platform (OPP) solution, leveraging its expertise to shape and execute a dynamic nearshore strategy. This approach enabled scalable IT resource allocation, optimized skills matching for complex requirements, and ensured seamless coordination through robust governance, significantly enhancing efficiency and reducing operational challenges like time zone misalignment.

The initial delivery in TUI’s largest, the UK, swiftly solved core business continuity issues with an existing PSP partner that were extremely time critical. Whilst doing this, the platform delivered remarkable conversion benefits through addition of desired payment methods to customers such as Apple Pay & Direct Debit open banking flows, ushering a new era in TUI’s payment ecosystem.

Scalable Internal Payment Solution

Engineered a holistic, adaptable payment solution deployable across multiple markets, supporting diverse and market-specific payment methods for streamlined expansion and operational efficiency.

Unified Payment Integration Across All Channels

Established a single integration point for all TUI selling channels, creating a seamless bridge between payments and PSPs, and enabling access to multiple payment methods and acquirers to support a diverse customer base.

Flexibility in Payments and New Gateways

Improved common customer journey by integrating desired payment methods to customers such as Apple Pay and Direct Debit.

Enhanced Cost Efficiency and Payment Success

Strengthened the technical relationship between TUI's payments and PSPs, reducing transaction costs and optimizing success rates through a more streamlined and cohesive payment infrastructure.

Visibility into Finance Reporting

Unified and streamlined reporting systems to establish consistent alignment across finance technology, fostering transparency and data-driven financial insights.

Intelligent Payment Routing

Enabled dynamic payment routing to customize payment flows, implement flexible load distribution, and lower transaction costs.

Future-Ready Security and Compliance Framework

Implemented a unified security and compliance approach, ensuring PCI DSS compliance by encrypting any stored data while future-proofing the system for additional payment partnerships and evolving requirements.

04

The Results

85 %

Access to NL market share by setting up ideal payment method

10

payment methods with the biggest market share available

97 %

Captured/authorized transactions

114 m+

Weekly transaction volume

We found a great partner in Ciklum. The engineers and the team we get to work with bring a high level of expertise and a great work ethic that really resonates with our value of excellence and passion for delivering the best service to our customers.