Meet Thomas Blum:
Tourwriter’s new customer success lead
If you’ve spent any time in the Tourwriter world, you already know the name Thomas.
On a support call. In a webinar. Buried in a help file at 11:58 pm while untangling a rate sheet.
The calm voice, encyclopedic product knowledge and unshakable patience.
Thomas Blum has been part of Tourwriter for years. Long enough to remember when suppliers still faxed rates. Long enough to have guided hundreds of tour operators through their first itinerary, their first booking, their first season with new software. But not long enough to forget what it is like to be working in Operations at a busy Tour Operator.
Now he’s Tourwriter’s newest customer success lead.
But don’t expect a repeat of what came before. Thomas is excited, energized, and determined to raise the bar for how luxury tour operators learn, grow, and win using Tourwriter.
The goal isn’t support. The goal is not needing support.
Thomas lights up when he talks about great onboarding.
“If we can prepare a customer so well that they barely need support, that is the ultimate goal.”
It’s not about disappearing once someone signs up. It’s about designing an environment where learning feels intuitive. Where teams feel confident the moment they step into their workspace.
That’s why Tourwriter’s onboarding is layered with intention.
Sales uncovers the unique details of each business and works on detailed briefs with the customer success team. Though, as Thomas notes with a laugh, most tour operators think they are entirely unique, but truth be told they have more in common than they think.
“We are working with a niche set of businesses in the travel industry. In our world of luxury and bespoke tour operators and DMCs building complex, multi-day trips, ninety-five percent of businesses share the same backbone.”
The Learning Centre: your 24/7 guide
Ask Thomas a question and there’s a very good chance he’ll say, “It’s in the Learning Centre.”
Not to brush you off. But because the Learning Centre is one of Tourwriter’s superpowers.
Packed with walkthroughs, videos, tips, release notes, and step-by-step guides. Available 24/7 for global teams working across time zones.
He shares a recent story:
A customer was trying out the new template-to-itinerary tool and got stuck. Thomas guided them toward the help file, walked them through the workflow, and within minutes they’d built exactly what they needed.
“Happy customer, happy customer success. And they left us a great review too.”
This is how trust is built. Not through big gestures, but through hundreds of small, timely, human interactions that say: you’re not alone.
Canny: the beating heart of feedback
If onboarding is the foundation and the Learning Centre is the home base, then Canny is the living brain that keeps evolving the product.
Thomas explains it with genuine enthusiasm:
“Canny is our source of truth. Customers request features, they vote, they follow the progress, and they get notified as things move from idea to discovery to development to release.”
Customers love it. It’s transparent, democratic and keeps everyone in the loop.
There’s also the changelog, a running record of all updates and releases, complete with videos and walkthroughs. Thomas knows that travel companies run at high speed. Having a single place to stay informed helps teams avoid surprises and adopt new features faster.
Community roundtables:
competitors learning together
One thing that Thomas is excited to expand are Tourwriter’s customer roundtables. Small group sessions where tour operators come together, learn about new features, explore what’s coming on the roadmap, and share what is and isn’t working for them.
It’s collaboration, not competition.
“You get a table full of competitors, but they all see the common good. They bounce ideas off each other. Someone shares a feature they use. Someone else says, ‘Wait, we don’t use that. Should we?’ That is invaluable.”
Expect more of these events. Customers loved them. So did Thomas.
Webinars are returning too. Short, focused topics that provide quick wins without requiring a deep look into documentation. (Don’t worry, the Learning Centre still has your back.)
AI, rates, and the end of data entry misery
If you’ve ever loaded 200 supplier PDFs into a system and lived to tell the tale, you’ll want to hear this.
Thomas is excited about Tourwriter’s AI-driven exploration into supply and rates loading.
The man has trauma, softened by time perhaps, about receiving huge seasonal rate packs as an inbound operator:
“You’re supposed to be in the off season. Then 50 PDFs land on your desk. ‘Here, load these.’”
Those days are numbered.
Tourwriter is working on new tools to make rate loading faster, smarter, and far more accurate. Fewer mistakes. Faster turnaround. More time for actual itinerary design.
It also means onboarding new customers will be even smoother. Their own suppliers, their own pricing, their own contracts, loaded quickly and cleanly. No more generic placeholders. No more waiting to get started.
Customer feedback:
what gets him out of bed
You’d expect a customer success lead to say feedback is important. But Thomas doesn’t just say it. He lives like someone fueled by it.
“Feedback is what makes me go to work every day. Canny, direct calls, onboarding sessions, however it comes in, it matters.”
His passion is simple: Customers should always know there is a place to go. Someone to ask. Somewhere to learn. Something that helps them move forward without feeling stuck.
This is why he’s perfect for this role. This is why the community trusts him.
Because Thomas believes our customers are the best in the industry. And his job is to help them be even better.
What’s next
Ready to see how Tourwriter can transform your travel business? Book a demo and meet the team that Thomas is so proud to support.
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