Report by Jeremy Skidmore
AMADEUS is planning to buy an agency consortium in the UK
after spending $57.3 million on US based vacation.com.
Only 10% of vacation.com’s 8,400 travel agencies use Amadeus
but the global distribution system is expected to significantly increase that
figure following the purchase.
Amadeus UK managing director Graham Nichols announced the
deal at the ABTA convention. He said: “We clearly believe in this philosophy
and you can draw the conclusion that we would like to do the same in the UK
market.
“Vacation.com is a profitable business in its own right and
we also believe we can massively grow our presence with the consortium. We can’t
force anything on its members but we will put together a proposition which is
attractive and makes them likely to switch to Amadeus,” he said.