Travelopia to sell its education division

Independent tour operator group Travelopia is to sell the 10 brands in its education division.

The brands include UK-based Travelbound, SkiBound, JCA and World Challenge and a further six brands in north America

External advisors GCA Altium have been appointed to assist sale.

Travelopia said proceeds of the sale will be re-invested across the group to “boost further strategic growth of remaining businesses”.

Travelopia’s education division works closely with teachers and schools in the UK, North America and Australia to provide educational, adventure and performance-based tours to children and young adults.

The Division is headed by managing director Brendan Jones who Travelopia said has overseen profitable growth year-on-year since he took over the helm in 2014.

The sale of the division follows the acquisition of Travelopia from Tui Group by leading global investment firm KKR in June last year.

Will Waggott, Travelopia chief executive, said: “Experiential travel is at the heart of what we do across our Travelopia brands and, as such, we have been evaluating opportunities to further boost our presence in this market.

“Our education division is a fantastic collection of experiential businesses, however, the business model, and therefore the processes and requirements, of these brands differs radically to that of the rest of the Travelopia portfolio, in that for most businesses the customer is the teacher, rather than the final consumer.

“Given there is also growing interest in these businesses from various sectors, we have decided to put the education division up for sale in the spring.

“We are confident that there will be strong demand from potential purchasers and investors to back such a high quality collection of brands with exciting growth potential, and that a great new home will be found for the division outside of Travelopia.”

Travelopia is made up of more than 50 independently operated brands including Hayes & Jarvis, Sovereign Luxury Travel, Exodus Travels, Citalia, Austravel, Gullivers Sports Travel, Flexiski, American Holidays , Sunsail, and Headwater.

More: Travelopia to invest in technology and new brands

KKR completes acquisition of Travelopia from Tui group

Trade sales are ‘sleeping giant’, says new Exodus Travels boss

Travelopia names new Sovereign and Citalia head