Bermuda-based First Atlantic Commerce (FAC) has linked up with a tour management booking company in the Bahamas.

The Island online payments provider is to work with RezBS, a Bahamian booking platform, to allow real time online credit card processing for tour operators.

FAC’s Tricia Lines Hill said: “We are thrilled to have the RezBS platform integrated to our gateway.

“It provides our Caribbean tour operator merchants with a superior local solution.”

FAC, founded in 1989, now provides payment methods and fraud management services in Europe, the Latin American Caribbean region and Mauritius.

RezBS was developed by web development firm Thyme Online to provide tour operators with e-commerce and online booking facilities and to manage booking and reservations.

Ben Jamieson, head of Thyme Online, said: “We realised there was scope to build something that could benefit all tour operators in the country and throughout the Caribbean.

“We worked with First Atlantic Commerce to ensure the platform met with the strict requirements of PCI DSS as well as the needs of the industry.

“The result is an e-commerce enabled booking system for tour operators built from the ground up.”

Online bookings account for more than 60 per cent of all vacation tour bookings in the Bahamas.

The new platform is integrated with all FAC’s products and is connected to several major banks in the Caribbean to maximise availability to tour companies.

In addition, participating companies do not need to rebuild their websites to meet tough security requirements set by credit card firms and banks because security is handled by the platform itself.