Travel Holdings

About Travel Holdings

Travel Holdings operated as a global travel distribution company, founded in 1994. The firm's business model centered on contracting directly with a wide array of travel providers, including hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and car rental companies. This allowed the company to function as a wholesaler, brokering a large volume of travel inventory to its clients, which primarily consisted of travel sellers. The business-to-business (B2B) approach enabled its partners to efficiently handle a high number of transactions and reservations.

The company was formed through the 2004 merger of Tourico Holidays, a major travel wholesaler, LastMinuteTravel.com, an online travel agency, and Travel Global Systems, a technology provider. This strategic combination created a comprehensive travel distribution platform. Through its various entities, Travel Holdings aggressively expanded its hotel portfolio, adding over 1,000 properties monthly, with a significant portion located outside the United States. A key strategy involved purchasing large blocks of hotel rooms under year-long contracts, which provided inventory at competitive rates, enabling the company to offer premium accommodations at lower prices.

In a significant development for the travel industry, Travel Holdings was acquired by Hotelbeds Group in June 2017. Hotelbeds Group itself had been acquired by the private equity firm Cinven and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in 2016. Following the acquisition, Tourico Holidays was integrated as a business unit within the Hotelbeds Group, consolidating its position in the global bedbank market.