Tourico expands Asia footprint

ORLANDO Tourico Holidays, reports it has increased hotel inventory in Asia by 20% in 2016, as the company continues to focus on increasing its influence in the region.

In the last five years, Tourico has more than doubled its hotel partnerships in the market, amassing a total to over 5,000 hotels across Asia.

Tourico aims to pre-purchase another USD15 million dollars in hotel inventory in Asia before the year’s end – targeting primary cities in China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.

The company has also made a commitment to contracting ancillary products in the region to help its distribution clients and travel agents increase their margins.

In the past month, the wholesaler has partnered with Thai Rent A Car, in Thailand, and Hawk Rent A Car, its first car rental partnership in Malaysia.

“Asia is a region demonstrating incredible travel growth, punctuated recently by a very strong first half to 2016, so our primary goal now is to double our hotel inventory again in the next five years,” said Tourico Holidays executive vice president of global product development Steve Skidgel.  “In addition to bolstering our hotel partnerships, we’ve also shifted focus to building out our pre-purchased hotel inventory in the market, growing our ancillary inventory, and continuing to add offices and personnel on the ground.”

Year-over-year bookings of pre-purchased hotel rooms, or “ExclusiveDeals”, have increased by more than 100% in Asia in 2016.

To facilitate its growth and to support its legacy partners in the region, Tourico recently opened a new office in Shenzhen, China, and plans to open offices in Seoul, Korea and Sydney, Australia within the next six months.

The new locations and additional personnel will work closely with existing Tourico offices in the Asia-Pacific region – including those in Beijing and Shanghai, China, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Japan, Bangkok, Thailand, New Delhi, India and Brisbane, Australia.

“Our rapid growth and continued expansion into the Asia-Pacific region should indicated to our supplier partners and distribution clients that we intend to play a major role in this travel ecosystem today and in the years to come,” Skidgel said.

Tourico Holidays will be exhibiting its lineup of travel offerings – including hotels, cruises, activities and transfers, car rentals, and vacation homes – at ITB Asia from 19 to 21 October.

Booth details: B04, Sands Expo and Convention Centre B2.

Tourico Holidays is a leading global travel distribution company that contracts directly with travel providers, such as hotels, flights, cruise lines, attractions, car rentals, vacation homes and more. Tourico Holidays works on a high-volume, wholesale model to broker this inventory to nearly 4,000 clients in 100 countries using proprietary technology.