Northstar Travel Group, the parent company of WiT, has made three acquisitions in just two days, a record for the company, to extend its global reach and create multi-platform media to support events.
The three companies are Buying Business Travel, acquired from London-based Panacea Media, New Jersey-based travAlliancemedia and UK’s CAT Media.
Terms of the three acquisition were not disclosed.
Buying Business Travel (BBT) is a business-to-business brand in the UK serving the corporate travel industry with online media, events and a magazine brand. Its portfolio includes The Business Travel Awards that recognise leadership of corporate travel suppliers, The BBT Business Travel Forums, BBT Editor’s Lunches and Buying Business Travel magazine. It will become part of Northstar’s BTN Group.
“Buying Business Travel provides Northstar with a media position in the UK market to complement Northstar’s Business Travel Show, the largest exhibition serving the European corporate travel market,” said Thomas Kemp, chairman & CEO of Northstar Travel Group.
Louis Magliaro, senior vice president and group publisher of Northstar’s BTN Group, said the BBT brand “is an excellent strategic fit with Northstar’s Business Travel News, Travel Procurement and The Beat brands along with the recently acquired Business Travel Show in London.”
travAlliancemedia produces media brands and marketing services serving the travel advisory market. It owns well-known brands including TravelPulse.com, TravelPulse Canada, Agent at Home, Travel Agent Academy, Agent Studio, and a portfolio of custom content solutions, marketing services, and software and marketing tools for the retail travel community.
“The addition of travAlliancemedia’s well-known brands serving the retail, home-based and independent travel advisory market complement Northstar’s leadership brands including Travel Weekly and TravelAge West serving the retail travel industry,” Kemp commented.
“The acquisition provides Northstar with an unparalleled portfolio of marketing services, online media, events, and marketing tools serving the travel advisory community and connecting travel suppliers and destinations to this audience,” said Kemp.
“We are thrilled to complete this merger of the two leading information and marketing services companies serving the retail travel market,”
Mark Murphy, founder and CEO of travAlliancemedia, will become an advisor to the Northstar and travAlliancemedia combination.
“We know the Northstar team and brands very well and believe this is a great combination of talent, complementary brands, and online services to better serve the travel advisory market,” he said.
The travAlliancemedia portfolio includes the following brands:
- TravelPulse.com: Leading online brand serving the travel advisor community in the US with approximately one million monthly visitors. TravelPulse connects destinations, travel suppliers and travel advisors with real time information and marketing services.
- TravelPulse Canada, TravelPulse Quebec, TravelPulse Mexico: Leading online information sites serving the Canadian and Mexican travel advisory communities.
- Agent at Home: Leading brand serving the home-based and independent travel advisor community with information, marketing services and events.
- Travel Agent Academy: Leading online education platform providing travel advisors with eLearning certification on travel destinations and suppliers.
- Agent Studio: A SaaS business that gives travel advisors the ability to build, on demand, custom websites that also feature an integrated marketing platform. This enables travel advisors to connect and market their services to clients and prospects with offers, online information and news about the latest happenings in travel.
“The travAlliancemedia portfolio is a perfect strategic fit with Northstar’s core information and marketing services brands serving the retail travel industry,” added Bob Sullivan, president of Northstar’s Travel Group.
CAT Media, located in East Grinstead outside London, is a global multi-platform business-to-business marketing services, information and events business serving the meetings and incentive industry.
It owns brands serving the UK and global MICE industry including Meetings & Incentive Travel, Association Meetings International, Meetpie.com – an online membership portal for meetings professionals – M&IT Challenges, M&IT Awards, VenueSource.com and Convention-Source.com
CAT Media will become part of the Northstar Meetings Group.
“The combination of the CAT Media portfolio with Northstar’s market leading The Meetings Show in London creates a strong multi-platform marketing services, information and event portfolio in the UK and Europe serving the meetings and incentives industry,” commented Northstar’s Kemp.
“After 32 years of developing our activities in this fast-changing market, this is a good time to marry our products with Northstar to give our business the critical mass and enable it to become part of a truly global media footprint in the travel and events business,” remarked Martin Lewis, managing director of CAT Media.
David Blansfield, EVP & group publisher of Northstar Meetings Group said “the addition of CAT Media extends our breadth and depth in service of supporting the meetings industry.” Northstar’s brands include Meetings & Conventions, Successful Meetings, Incentive, Meeting News and SportsTravel in North America, and M&C Asia and M&C China in Asia.
• Featured image credit: Di_Studio/Getty Images
