DI25015 Travel Counsellors V01 031225
Holiday planner acquires rival to expand across North America
A Manchester-based personal holiday planner has struck a deal to buy a Canadian rival as it seeks to double in size.
Travel Counsellors, which operates a platform that connects holidaymakers to thousands of self-employed advisers under a franchise model across six countries, has acquired Toronto-based The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND), for in the region of £50 million.
Steve Byrne, its chief executive said it would provide a platform for expansion across North America, the world’s largest travel market.
“Canada is the world’s seventh-largest outbound travel market and in TTAND we have partnered with one of the most successful travel businesses in that market with significant further headroom for growth,” he said.
Byrne said the deal would provide a gateway into the North American market, which represents a “significant potential future growth opportunity”.
Since it was founded in 2014, TTAND has become a dominant player in Canada’s premium leisure travel market through a franchise model similar to Travel Counsellors’ home-working adviser network. The company recorded C$500 million in turnover last year.
Travel Counsellors said both businesses would benefit from scale, with the enlarged group supporting over 3,900 advisers across seven markets.
As a result of Travel Counsellor’s third purchase in as many years, the company expects to deliver total transaction value — a measure of the amount customers spent with the business before cancellations and adjustments — of 1.5 billion in the next year, with underlying profits of £50 million.
The transaction comes on the back of another record year for Travel Coun-sellors, which achieved a total transaction value of £1.1 billion for the 12 months to the end of October and underlying earnings of £43 million, driven by sustained demand for bespoke, expert-led travel, especially among millennials. Revenues rose 9 per cent over the period to around £570 million.
Byrne said the company has “firmly” set its sights on doubling the size of the business in a bid to “further disrupt the international travel market though outstanding, personalised service and our highly scalable and differentiated technology-led business model”.
The company works with both corporate and leisure companies, helping people to plan holidays ranging from European city breaks to cruises, honeymoons and trips to locations such as Costa Rica, Hong Kong and Mauritius.
Recent research by Travel Counsellors supports the idea that millennials — people aged between 29 and 44 — are willing to to spend more than other demographics when it comes to trips abroad. Over half said they planned to spend more on travel in the next 12 months versus last year, compared with the national average of 34 per cent.
Travel Counsellors was founded in 1994 by David Speakman, starting out as a bricks-and-mortar travel agency in northwest England. He then came up with the idea of having travel planners working from home.
For the past seven years Travel Counsellors has been owned by the private equity firm Vitruvian Partners.
Vitruvian’s other investments include a majority stake in Sykes Holiday Cottages and Civitatis, an online platform for booking guided tours in Spanish-speaking markets. In May, Vitruvian acquired Great Rail Journeys, a provider of escorted luxury holiday tours everywhere from the Tuscan hills to the Amalfi coast, in a £200 million deal.
Travel Counsellors, which operates a platform that connects holidaymakers to thousands of self-employed advisers under a franchise model across six countries, has acquired Toronto-based The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND), for in the region of £50 million.
Steve Byrne, its chief executive said it would provide a platform for expansion across North America, the world’s largest travel market.
“Canada is the world’s seventh-largest outbound travel market and in TTAND we have partnered with one of the most successful travel businesses in that market with significant further headroom for growth,” he said.
Byrne said the deal would provide a gateway into the North American market, which represents a “significant potential future growth opportunity”.
Since it was founded in 2014, TTAND has become a dominant player in Canada’s premium leisure travel market through a franchise model similar to Travel Counsellors’ home-working adviser network. The company recorded C$500 million in turnover last year.
Travel Counsellors said both businesses would benefit from scale, with the enlarged group supporting over 3,900 advisers across seven markets.
As a result of Travel Counsellor’s third purchase in as many years, the company expects to deliver total transaction value — a measure of the amount customers spent with the business before cancellations and adjustments — of 1.5 billion in the next year, with underlying profits of £50 million.
The transaction comes on the back of another record year for Travel Coun-sellors, which achieved a total transaction value of £1.1 billion for the 12 months to the end of October and underlying earnings of £43 million, driven by sustained demand for bespoke, expert-led travel, especially among millennials. Revenues rose 9 per cent over the period to around £570 million.
Byrne said the company has “firmly” set its sights on doubling the size of the business in a bid to “further disrupt the international travel market though outstanding, personalised service and our highly scalable and differentiated technology-led business model”.
The company works with both corporate and leisure companies, helping people to plan holidays ranging from European city breaks to cruises, honeymoons and trips to locations such as Costa Rica, Hong Kong and Mauritius.
Recent research by Travel Counsellors supports the idea that millennials — people aged between 29 and 44 — are willing to to spend more than other demographics when it comes to trips abroad. Over half said they planned to spend more on travel in the next 12 months versus last year, compared with the national average of 34 per cent.
Travel Counsellors was founded in 1994 by David Speakman, starting out as a bricks-and-mortar travel agency in northwest England. He then came up with the idea of having travel planners working from home.
For the past seven years Travel Counsellors has been owned by the private equity firm Vitruvian Partners.
Vitruvian’s other investments include a majority stake in Sykes Holiday Cottages and Civitatis, an online platform for booking guided tours in Spanish-speaking markets. In May, Vitruvian acquired Great Rail Journeys, a provider of escorted luxury holiday tours everywhere from the Tuscan hills to the Amalfi coast, in a £200 million deal.
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