wholesalers international hub
Wholesale giants can offer unbeatable deals
the last independent family- owned company.”
He is confident about Travco’s
future, as he is about the sector: “Ten years ago, people were saying that wholesalers would be gone in 10 years, but we are expanding – the B2B market is still very much in control of the outbound market in many areas of the world and many countries have not yet embraced online distribution. There are a lot of territories that we are going after.” Remy said Travco now had connections to more than £10 billion of hotel stock. Its inventory has in excess of 100 countries with more than 12,000 hotel partners. “We are contracting 50 new hotels every week. We will have 15,000 by 2020 and 20,000 by 2025. The company has been running for 30 years. For the first 20-25 years we were regarded as a European specialist, but then we started global expansion with a strong focus on the Middle East, North America and Asia. We need to expand in these areas, so by the end of the year we will have an office in Vancouver to handle North America.”
From strength to strength More proof of how dynamic this
sector is comes from another UK brand, Travellanda. It will use WTM to showcase its new range of 18,000 activities, added this summer to its portfolio of more than 300,000 hotels. Ahmad Alkatib and two other ex-JacTravel employees formed Travellanda only eight years ago. “It has been a very fast train ride from there,” he says. “We are mainly a hotel wholesaler, but clients
wtm.com were saying they needed to book
transfers, so we added them. This year, there were a lot of requests to add activities, so we try to feature them with most of our hotels.” The brand remains B2B-only and has offices in London, Istanbul and Bangkok. “In the next two to three years we want to focus a lot more on the Middle East and South America, possibly opening offices there.”
Alkatib describes the UK as “probably the most saturated market” for companies like his, but adds: “I always say there is room for more, because no matter how many times we see a new entry, they manage to succeed. We made sure we focused not just on the UK business. We had to get to other areas where wholesalers do not go
Pic caption for here please
Ahmad Alkatib: “always room for more”
and find different types of clients.” He predicts a wave of consolidation in the sector following the Hotelbeds’ acquisition spree. “I really think this is just the beginning. It will get to the point where one large wholesaler dominates the market.”
WTM opportunities
Wholesalers will find plenty of buyers to deal with at WTM. The sector is positioned within the International Hub stands and among those will be that of the European Tourism Association (Etoa). Etoa will be hosting more than 250 tour operators and intermediaries, including 130 Chinese buyers. To underline the importance of this market, Etoa will have a stand in International Hub on behalf of the EU promoting European tourism to the Chinese trade. Etoa chief executive
Tom Jenkins says: “WTM provides exhibitors
Tom Jenkins, Etoa chief executive
with an amazing opportunity to find business they don’t necessarily know exists.”
With WebBeds only having set up in 2013 and Travellanda in 2010, there might be quite a few companies doing business that are unfamiliar to visitors – but with the wholesale sector’s booming growth rate and increasingly diverse interests, that may not be the case for long.
autumn 2018 wtm insights 67
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