First Choice Holidays focuses on travel market in North America

Leisure travel company First Choice Holidays PLC has identified the student travel market in North America as a key growth area and has recently completed four acquisitions in the educational group travel sector for a total consideration of £16 million.

“Educational Tours, based in Chicago, is the second largest educational tours operator in the US and the acquisition has given the Group a significant entry point into this market. School Voyageurs, Educa Tours and Jumpstreet Tours are all Canadian educational tours operators and their acquisition together with Impact Educational Tours, which is already part of the Group, establishes a strong position in this segment of the Canadian market,” stated the company.

Among other developments, the company shared that b2c accommodation provider Hotelopia has continued to extend its strategic partnerships with airlines.

Hotelopia recently won the contract to be the accommodation provider for Spanair and has now signed two further contracts with bmi and bmibaby.

Hotelopia is scheduled to start providing accommodation for the three airlines from May. “They have a total customer base of close to 20 million passengers who will be able to book accommodation at more than 20,000 hotels in over 900 destinations through Hotelopia,” the company stated.

On acquisitions integration, the company shared that following the acquisition of the Grand Expedition companies in December 2005 and Intrav in January 2006, it remains on track to achieve the synergy and operational efficiency benefits identified.

“The management team of First Choice Marine, with its five major brands including Sunsail Yachts and The Moorings, has successfully integrated these businesses and good progress is being made to fully realise £4.5m of synergy benefits in the year to 31 October 2007. Further savings are anticipated in 2008 and 2009. Following the disposal of its two US coastal cruising ships, Intrav is being re-structured to focus on its premium escorted tours and expedition cruise businesses. A significant reduction in Intrav’s cost base has already been achieved and the business is well on the way to returning to profitability in
2007,” added the company.