Based in the North West and in the heart of Liverpool, technology start-up digitaltravel.io is celebrating its third birthday with the news that its financial value has quadrupled since its inception.
The company, which provides digital travel solutions to travel and tourism companies with a particular focus on cruises, is now in its third year of operation and achieved annual revenue of over £1 million (£250,000) in its first 12 months of operation.
The increase in the company’s annual revenue is one of several milestones digitaltravel.io will achieve in 2024. Founded in 2021 by Peter Whittle and Peter Aland in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, digitaltravel.io has accelerated its growth from a team of five to 14 employees with 67 clients, 59% of whom are overseas. To accommodate its growing team, the company has also doubled its office space within the city’s Cotton Exchange.
digitaltravel.io was formed by the merger of Peter Whittle’s CruiseAppy, a mobile app platform for the cruise industry, and Peter Aland’s iprogress, a web design and development agency. Their innovation was to develop a scalable, integrated, bespoke app and website platform with unique customer engagement features powered by world-class travel data and content that has proven to be game-changing and has become the first choice for a growing number of cruise and travel agents worldwide.
CEO and co-founder Peter Whittle said: “We identified a gap in the market and founded digitaltravel.io to build a company that would not only excel in the quality of its services, but also in its ability to innovate and build long-term relationships with its customers. Three years later, we have exceeded our expectations thanks to a talented team, loyal customers and strong partnerships. We have reached ‘base camp’ as a start-up and are now investing in people and processes to further grow the business and scalability of our platform.”
digitaltravel.io now has an international customer base across the EU, Americas and APAC and boasts a 98% customer retention rate, supported by a strategic partnership with world-renowned travel technology provider Traveltek. Its clients include some of the biggest brands in the industry: Hays Travel, Imagine Cruising and Flight Centre.
Peter Whittle added: “We have grown our £1m annual turnover by creating long-term partnerships with many of our customers. We have established ongoing monthly contracts not only for support and maintenance but also for guaranteed development resources, providing our customers with a mutually beneficial partnership in terms of response, focus, resources and delivery, whilst giving us the confidence to continue investing with guaranteed revenue streams. Our growth has been underpinned by key recruitment and a number of innovative strategies that have made a tremendous difference in the market.”
In 2021, digitaltravel.io was recognised in the ‘Best Technology Provider’ category at the industry-leading Travolution Awards and in 2023 and 2024 the company was named to the Tech Climbers list of the most scalable, innovative and product-led technology companies across the Liverpool City Region.
Mal Barritt, CEO of Traveltek, said: “We have an excellent and mutually beneficial working relationship with digitaltravel.io. Their tireless commitment and can-do attitude have helped deliver numerous websites for Traveltek clients worldwide. We combine our technical expertise and travel industry experience to help travel agents offer their customers the best online.”
James Robathan, Digital Director at Imagine Cruising, added: “digitaltravel.io has successfully migrated all of our websites worldwide to a new content management system and infrastructure that
us to quickly and efficiently develop and build customized products for different countries. Their technology has made us more efficient and helped us expand into new markets, while their tenacity and innovation have enabled them to overtake their competitors and gain recognition in a very competitive industry.”
