Christian Tour, the largest travel agency in the country, takes over the agency network of TUI Travel Center Romania, thus becoming the company with the largest number of brick and mortar offices nationwide.
As a result of this transaction, the TUI Travel Center Romania network will undergo a rebranding process, with all its agencies becoming Christian Tour. Previously, TUI Travel Center Romania was owned, together with its network of agencies, by German Touristik, part of the Memento Group.
After the transfer of the network to Christian Tour, German Touristik will continue to remain a Tour Operator under its own brand, becoming the ultra discounter of the Memento Group and focusing its activity on the B2B segment, with ultra low cost accommodation and charter offers distributed to over 1,000 reseller agencies in Romania.
“Lately, we have been making considerable financial and structural efforts to prepare for our IPO,” explains Cristian Pandel, CEO and Chairman of Christian Tour. “We have fully taken over structures or companies in which we were shareholders, or even majority shareholders, in order to fortify our position on the market and ensure all the necessary components of a healthy and successful travel business – from the AnimaWings airline, which became 100% Romanian this year, to the network of agencies, from local players to agencies offering niche travel experiences. We now have an impressive portfolio, with a mix of products and services that we offer to our customers, and in the next stage we aim to become the largest online travel platform in the country.”
The takeover of the TUI Travel Romania network will be completed by December 31, 2024. The value of the financial transaction associated with the takeover of the agency network exceeds EUR 1 million. This year, German Touristik, the company that owns the TUI network in Romania, reached a turnover of more than EUR 25 million, of which approximately EUR 10 million represented sales through the network.
By integrating the 15 agencies taken over from TUI Travel Center and optimizing the existing network, Christian Tour aims to reach 80 points of sale throughout the country by the beginning of 2025, which will be the largest retail network owned by a travel agency in Romania.
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- The takeover is part of Christian Tour’s strategy to prepare for listing
- Through this transaction Christian Tour will own the largest travel retail network in Romania
- The transaction exceeds EUR 1 million and will be finalized by December 31
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