Following the approval by the relevant competition authorities, DERTOUR Group has today completed the acquisition of four of the five business units of the Hotelplan Group, an international travel group specialising in leisure and business travel.
This includes the entire travel retail and tour operator business of Hotelplan Group in Switzerland, Germany, and the UK. The holiday home specialist Interhome, which is being taken over by the HomeToGo Group, is excluded.
The popular and well-established travel brands of Hotelplan Group will remain and join the tourism network of the DERTOUR Group, which is represented in 16 source markets with over 180 companies and around 13,000 employees.
“After months of intense preparation, the acquisition has now been legally completed. We would like to thank all teams involved who have worked tirelessly over the past few weeks to make this step possible. We are excited to officially welcome our colleagues from Hotelplan Group to the DERTOUR Group. This marks the beginning of growing together as a team, which we are approaching with great energy and a clear vision for further profitable growth,” says Christoph Debus, CEO DERTOUR Group.
He added: “Our focus lies on travellers’ individual needs, and we want to inspire them with an even wider choice and range of offers. At the same time, we promise to continue to provide seamless, high-quality service. As an internationally renowned travel company and a subsidiary of REWE Group, we stand for a high level of reliability, excellence and professionalism”.
The acquisition significantly expands the size and scale of DERTOUR UK, with the addition of four successful brands including Explore Worldwide, Inghams, Inntravel and Santa’s Lapland. DERTOUR UK becomes a group of eleven thriving specialist businesses, which will all remain and complement each other.
With the completion of the acquisition, the Hotelplan Group Management will transfer to DERTOUR Group’s organisational structure. Joe Ponte, Chief Executive Officer of Hotelplan UK and Executive Board member at Hotelplan Group will be leaving the company at the end of September. Francis Torrilla, CEO of DERTOUR UK, will assume leadership of the expanded group in the UK market.
“We express our sincere appreciation to the Hotelplan Group’s entire leadership team for their exceptional dedication over recent months. They have demonstrated unwavering commitment to both the organization and its employees, steering the company successfully through a challenging period in its history.” stated Christoph Debus. “We would also like to thank Joe as he hands over the leadership of some exceptional brands that we are excited to bring into the DERTOUR UK portfolio. We wish him every success in his future career.”
Joe Ponte said: “I will be leaving my position incredibly proud of everything our teams have achieved. Driven by passion, we’ve transformed our businesses to focus equally on planet, people and profit, constantly striving for excellence for our customers. I am confident that DERTOUR will be a strong, supportive home for our brands.”
For customers, the completion of the acquisition has no impact and they will continue to be able to travel, plan and book their holidays as usual. As part of DERTOUR UK the brands will remain and will be further developed, so customers can have every confidence they will be looked after by trusted travel teams.
Francis Torrilla added: “There is a very good fit between the businesses, we are a diverse, purpose-led group with a strong focus on respect for our environment, lightening our footprint on the destinations we send customers to and operating business in a sustainable way. Our workplace culture is a positive one, we are based on values of respect, support and personal development and we want to welcome all the new colleagues into the group.”
For further information please contact:
Rachel O’Reilly DERTOUR UK, tel: 07866 427870 rachel.oreilly@dertour.co.uk
Background:
DERTOUR Group has its head office in Cologne, Germany, and is REWE Group’s travel and tourism division. As one of Europe’s leading travel groups, DERTOUR Group encompasses more than 180 companies and employs around 13,000 people in 16 European countries. Every year, millions of guests travel with one of the Group’s tour operators or specialists. DERTOUR Group includes tour operators such as DERTOUR, ITS, Meiers Weltreisen, Kuoni, Helvetic Tours, ITS Coop Travel, Billa Reisen, Koning Aap, Apollo, Exim Tours and Fischer, as well as around 2,000 travel agencies (such as DERTOUR, DERPART, Kuoni, Exim, and Fischer, plus franchises and partners), the hotel brands Sentido, Aldiana, and ananea and the online travel agency Prijsvrij Vakanties. The DERTOUR Group also offers on-site support: The company runs an agency network with 71 offices in 31 travel destinations. The staff in the destination agencies assist the guests of the DERTOUR Group from their arrival at their holiday destination until their departure. For more information, go to www.dertour-group.com.