At a glance
- + 3 tools consolidated: Processes across Excel, Word and Travefy consolidated with Tourwriter operational platform
- + Up to 10x faster revisions: One change in Tourwriter updates pricing and client document simultaneously
- + Zero back-office hires since COVID: Tourwriter absorbs the full administrative load for a two-person team
- + 500+ bespoke Nordic itineraries: Delivered across Norway, Sweden and Finland
- + 4.7/5 from 192 verified reviews: On Evaneos, where Christian has been a vetted partner for over a decade
Overview and background
Christian Berger runs a destination management company from a working farm in Vestfold, Norway. No back-office team. No reservations staff. Just Christian, his wife Mathilde, and the software they have shaped and relied on for five years. Together they plan, price and deliver bespoke multi-week itineraries across Norway, Sweden and Finland for French-speaking travellers who want the real Scandinavia. Not a tour group, not a package. Just a handcrafted journey built from scratch around a specific person and guaranteed life long treasured memories.
Elan Norway was registered in 2011 and trades as Escalaunord. Christian joined the travel industry via an unusual route. A French degree in territorial planning, twelve years of development work across West Africa, then a relocation to Norway with Mathilde. The business idea arose from a strong market need. Norway drew travellers who wanted depth. As a specialist who spoke French, knew the country intimately, and could build a trip around a specific family, couple or solo traveller, Christian and Mathilde provided exactly what the market lacked. By the mid-2020s, Escalaunord had served more than 500 satisfied travellers and held a 4.7/5 rating from 192 verified reviews on Evaneos, where Christian has been a vetted partner for over a decade.
None of it came easily. In the early years, the administration nearly consumed the business.
"I just started with Excel, Word, and sending a road book by paper,"
Christian Berger, Founder and Director, Elan Norway / Escalaunord
It was the standard start. It did not stay manageable.
Every Scandinavian itinerary is a complex object. A three-week trip through Norway might involve a dozen accommodation providers, guiding companies, ferry passages, regional flights and a programme of activities built precisely around each client's interests. When a client requested a hotel change on day eight, Christian opened the pricing spreadsheet, updated the rate and margin, then opened the Word document, found the same entry, rewrote the description, verified the dates, generated a new PDF and emailed it out. One amendment. Two files. Forty-five minutes. This happened multiple times per booking and a typical itinerary went through three to five revision rounds before confirmation. Across a full season, the administrative weight was relentless.
Before COVID, Elan Norway employed additional staff to help carry it. When travel stopped and the team shrank, Christian took stock and evaluated his options: he could rebuild the headcount when travel returned, or find another way. He took the time to look at what Tourwriter had already made possible and decided to go deep and push the platform and his adoption further.
He did not hire back.
"I'm a small agency. I work with my wife. I had employees previously, but after COVID I decided to stop. I don't need them, because I'm quite efficient with Tourwriter."
Christian Berger, Founder and Director, Elan Norway / Escalaunord
Christian Berger built every itinerary using Excel for pricing and Word for the client document, then sent a printed road book to the traveller. Any change required opening both files, updating each separately, checking they matched, and distributing a new version. For a business building custom multi-week Scandinavian itineraries from scratch for every client, this process consumed hours every week and grew more demanding with every booking added to the season.
The cost is not a single error. It is time that accumulates across every booking, every revision cycle, every season. When pricing and client documents live in separate files, every change must be applied in both by hand. A three-to-five revision cycle on a complex itinerary adds two to four hours of pure administration per booking. Over a full season, that is the equivalent of a full-time staff role spent on reconciliation rather than client service.
Quickly. Excel handles basic pricing well at the start, but it does not connect to the client document, the supplier confirmation, or the financial record. As itinerary complexity grows and multiple bookings run simultaneously at different revision stages, the time spent keeping files consistent becomes the main constraint on capacity. The gap becomes visible not through one failure but through time steadily lost to administration rather than client service.
One platform for the entire workflow
Christian partnered with Tourwriter in 2018. He has been at the forefront of Tourwriter power users through three versions of the platform: the original desktop application, a mid-generation product, and the full cloud system he runs today. He has not simply been a passenger on this journey but has shaped the Tourwriter product that he uses today. Tourwriter works closely with customers to ensure the features are fit for purpose and the road map is shaped entirely by customer feedback.
"I'm quite active with Tourwriter. I suggest a lot of improvements and have direct input in shaping the product,"
Christian Berger, Founder and Director, Elan Norway / Escalaunord
That level of product influence is only possible when the platform is purpose-built for operators like him, not repurposed from a generic CRM or an enterprise booking system. Tourwriter was founded in 2004. More than twenty years of development, guided directly by boutique tour operators through active product feedback, has produced a platform that understands the commercial reality of running a small, specialist travel business. That depth of focus cannot be replicated by a tool built for a different kind of operator.
When Christian first joined Tourwriter, the platform was integrated with Travefy. For a period, he ran both: Tourwriter for building, pricing and reconciling each booking; Travefy for client-facing proposal delivery and the on-ground roadbook with its chat and live flight features.
The arrangement ended when Travefy expanded into operational features that overlapped with Tourwriter's core territory. The integration was removed. For Christian, it clarified what had always been true. The proposal logic, the pricing engine, the margin tracking, the supplier database, the financial reconciliation: all of it lived in Tourwriter. Travefy only provides a front-end layer. The engine underneath was what mattered.
"The proposal, the pricing, the reconciliation with finance: all of that process is now with Tourwriter."
Christian Berger, Founder and Director, Elan Norway
Today the full pre-trip workflow runs through Tourwriter. Tourwriter's itinerary builder replaced the spreadsheet-and-document workflow with a single environment for building, pricing and delivering proposals. Supplier rates are stored centrally. Add a service and the rate applies automatically. Change one booking line and both the costing and the client document update simultaneously. One action. No second file to open.
Finance reconciliation runs inside the same platform. Tourwriter's supplier management tools let Christian track cost versus sell price across every booking line and confirm supplier bookings directly from within the itinerary. For a two-person operation without a dedicated finance function, discrepancies surface during the booking process, not at month end.
The competitive environment for boutique operators is shifting fast. AI trip planning tools are capturing mass-market volume based travel. Independent DMCs who want to stay competitive and relevant must provide greater depth, personalisation and response speed than AI planning tools. What Christian and Mathilde do cannot be replicated by a generative tool: the decade-long supplier relationships, the intimate knowledge of three countries, the craft of building a three-week itinerary that fits a specific family's way of travelling. The operators who protect that advantage are the ones who deliver it quickly, enabled by a powerful operational engine and good processes.
Tourwriter handles the full pre-trip operational workflow: building, pricing and reconciling the commercial side of every booking. Travefy was designed primarily for client-facing ground delivery rather than for managing supplier rates, margins and financial reconciliation. For Elan Norway, Tourwriter became the complete back-office system.
Yes. Tourwriter tracks cost versus sell price across every booking line and manages supplier invoices from within the itinerary environment. For a small operator without dedicated finance staff, reconciliation happens as part of the normal booking workflow. Discrepancies surface during the booking process rather than at month end. This is enhanced further for operators using Xero. Tourwriter has the only two-way, real-time certified integration with Xero in the travel tech market.
It means the platform is designed around the commercial reality of a small, specialist travel business: applying margins at the supplier level, building custom product catalogues for niche destinations, tracking costs across multi-day itineraries, and producing polished client documents. Tourwriter has been refining this with boutique operators since 2004. Two decades of product development guided by operator feedback produces a system that understands how these businesses actually work. That is not something a generic CRM or repurposed booking tool can replicate.
The results
Elan Norway operates without additional back-office staff. Christian and Mathilde cover the full administrative and commercial load of a multi-country DMC as a two-person team. No finance function, reservations staff or administrative support. This operating model is made possible by five years of building Tourwriter into the centre of the business.
Escalaunord holds a 4.7/5 rating from 192 verified traveller reviews on Evaneos. The clients who book with Escalaunord are French-speaking travellers with high expectations and specific requirements. Couples planning a milestone Arctic winter trip. Families building a summer expedition across three Scandinavian countries. Solo travellers who have been researching Norway for years and want it done exactly right. Every customer receives a proposal built to their specification, revised quickly when plans change, and backed by supplier relationships that no booking engine can replicate.
The agency has contributed to Hachette's Guide Bleu Norvege series, organising research logistics for 25 days of travel from Oslo to Honningsvag. Christian's reputation as a destination specialist reaches well beyond individual bookings.
That quality shows up most visibly in the proposal document itself. At industry gatherings, when other inbound tour operators ask what Christian uses to run his business, he shows them on his phone. Those proposals and conversations convert. Christian has already referred operators who became Tourwriter customers. He intends to formalise this further by collecting email addresses at industry events and making introductions directly. Recommending Tourwriter to other incoming operators is already part of how he works.
Efficient systems let Christian do more, respond faster, and deliver better. In a market where discerning clients expect both speed and depth, that is not a marginal advantage. It is the business.
Customer reviews
The following testimonials were posted by Escalaunord clients. Reviews are published in French, reflecting the agency's Francophone clientele. Escalaunord holds a 4.7/5 rating from 192 verified reviews on Evaneos.
"Merci beaucoup a Christian qui nous a prepare un voyage sur mesure (vous avez vraiment compris ce que nous voulions), des logements au top du top."
Geraldine, August 2025
"Je recommande a 100% l'agence Escal'au nord. Notre voyage en Norvege fut notre plus beau voyage, il a ete construit et reajuste."
Coralie, August 2025
"Voyage prepare avec l'agence de Christian. Il a ete tres a l'ecoute afin de saisir mes centres d'interet, tres attentif, rassurant."
Paul, August 2025
Elan Norway operates without additional back-office staff. Christian Berger decided after COVID that the efficiency built into Tourwriter had made hiring unnecessary. The business continues to serve French-speaking clients on bespoke Scandinavian itineraries, holding a 4.7/5 rating from 192 verified Evaneos reviews, without the administrative overhead that previously required additional headcount.
AI tools produce reasonable generic itineraries efficiently. What they cannot replicate is the depth of a specialist's supplier relationships, the precision of a trip built for a specific client, and the experience of working intimately with a destination for over a decade. Operators who use purpose-built tools like Tourwriter respond faster, price accurately and deliver branded proposals that no algorithm produces. Their competitive advantage is depth, delivered at the speed modern travellers expect.
Once the supplier database is built, a polished proposal for a complex bespoke itinerary can be prepared and sent the same day. Any revision updates the pricing and the client document simultaneously. For French-speaking clients booking a multi-week Norway itinerary, receiving a detailed branded proposal quickly is a significant part of the purchase decision. Speed signals professionalism and keeps the client engaged at the moment of inspiration.
Elan Norway operates a full Nordic DMC as a two-person business, delivering bespoke multi-country trips to a French-speaking market with a 4.7/5 rating from 192 verified Evaneos reviews. Five years on Tourwriter eliminated the need for back-office hiring entirely. The administrative capacity previously handled by multiple staff is now absorbed by the platform.
Yes. Tourwriter not only produces professional mobile-optimised itineraries, it also integrates with Axus and Vamoos, allowing operators to push a completed itinerary directly into a client-facing app without rebuilding it.
Written by Jacqui Sizeland, Head of Marketing, Tourwriter following in-depth interviews with Christian Berger, Founder and Director Elan Norway
Published: 8 April 2026 | Updated: 8 April 2026
Tourwriter serves independent tour operators and DMCs across more than 60 countries.
