How TUI Gave Its Agencies, Call Centres and Head Office One Place to Find Answers
TUI gave its head office, travel agencies and call centres one knowledge base, built on Zendesk Guide with a custom Premium Plus theme. Everyone signs in with single sign-on and sees only the content meant for them. The content team keeps it all up to date from a simple backend.
At a glance
- Customer: TUI, one of the world's biggest tourism groups
- Who uses it: head office employees, travel agencies and call centres
- Built with: Zendesk Guide and a custom Premium Plus theme
- Partnership: the original build in 2022, plus a Zendesk Health Check in 2025
Who is TUI?
TUI is a global travel group with around 62,000 employees, 1,200 travel agencies, 400 hotels, 130 aircraft and 16 cruise ships. Our project was with TUI France, which works through its own agencies, roughly 4,000 reselling agencies, and two main resort clubs. That's a lot of people who all need reliable answers, fast.
Why did TUI need a new knowledge base?
TUI wanted every team to find what they need without wading through content meant for someone else. The wish list was:
- Access based on profile (call centre, agency or head office), with single sign-on
- A comfortable, efficient design for busy teams
- Something easy for the content team to run, with scheduled publishing and archiving, plus reporting
- An open API, so the knowledge base could connect to the tools TUI already used
Getting there took a few tries. An open source tool started to show its age. SharePoint came next but couldn't deliver, with a dated layout, folder-based navigation, plenty of upkeep, no reporting, and fiddly access control.
Why did TUI choose Zendesk Guide and Premium Plus?
TUI didn't know the full Zendesk range well when we started talking, so we kept it practical and built a demo around their own requirements. Three things won them over:
- Simplicity: Zendesk is easy to use and easy to maintain.
- Control: Guide comes with plenty of friendly admin options.
- Support: Our team answered every question quickly and thoroughly.
How did we build it?
We kicked off in summer 2022 and ran two tracks side by side, setting up Guide and designing a custom theme. Working in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Zendesk Guide, we:
- Built images into the theme, so the portal feels visual and welcoming
- Chose a clean, minimal layout that lets the content take centre stage
- Added links to partner portals inside section and category boxes
- Created a homepage block for upcoming seminars and events
A standout detail is the structure. The content runs five tiers deep, mixing images with links out to external sites, and it still feels simple to move around.
"We are very happy with our Premium Plus theme and with Zendesk Guide backend to manage the content!"
Mehmet Sagnac, Business Expert and Data Protection Officer referent, TUI France
How did it work out?
TUI embraced the new theme and found managing content in Guide's backend smooth and efficient. Head office, agencies and call centres now share one platform, with access matched to each profile.
What's next?
In 2025, TUI France came back for a Zendesk Health Check and hands-on configuration support. The relationship keeps growing alongside their setup.