US-based Tourico Holidays officially became part of global bedbank and B2B provider of services, Hotelbeds Group, on June 8 following the closure of regulatory and legal procedures.
This completes the deal following announcement by Hotelbeds Group last February to acquire Tourico Holidays and merge the wholesaler with its Bedbank business unit.
Tourico Holidays is now a business unit within the Hotelbeds Group while the integration progresses.
Tourico Holidays is now part of Hotelbeds Group.
A strategic plan is already in development to combine both businesses in stages. In due course both hotel and ancillaries partners and clients of each company will have access to the complete range of services and technology solutions currently available from both Hotelbeds and Tourico Holidays.
“This deal expands our footprint in the important North American market and, along with our plans also for GTA to join us, forms part of our strategy to accelerate the growth of our business both organically and via M&A activity,” said Joan Vilà, executive chairman of Hotelbeds Group
Joan Vilà: Deal expands Hotelbeds Group’s footprint North America.
“Our medium-term objective is to combine our respective best in class technology and distribution expertise for the benefit of both our hotel partners and clients. We will do this in stages and over the coming months will provide partners with further updates on how and when this will happen,” he added.
In a related development Tourico Holidays founder, Uri Argov, has made the decision to retire, but will remain a shareholder of the combined company.
Asi Ginio, who has been with Tourico Holidays since 1999, and is currently chief operating officer, will now step into the chief executive officer role while the company transitions to full integration.
This latest deal follows the announcement in April of plans that GTA, a leading global bedbank with a significant presence in the fast-growing and strategic Asia-Pacific market, will also join Hotelbeds Group (read story here).
GTA joining Hotelbeds Group is independent from the Tourico Holidays deal, and is subject to both its own regulatory approval process and integration timeline. For the time being GTA remains an independent company and is not part of Hotelbeds Group.
• All images credit: Hotelbeds Group
