Travco Group International Holding Acquires The Hotel Company Steigenberger Hotels AG

Aug. 20, 2009 - PRLog -- TRAVCO GROUP INTERNATIONAL HOLDING S.A.E (TRAVCO GROUP), the Egypt based leading travel group, has completed the strategic acquisition of STEIGENBERGER HOTELS AG. This step further reinforces TRAVCO GROUP’S strategy of targeted growth and international expansion. In addition to hotels, Nile cruise ships and destination management companies, TRAVCO’s business activities cover the full tourism value chain with a unique integrated business model.
“This is a very important strategic step towards our long-lasting and continuous course for growth, which positions us as a global player in the tourism and hospitality industries and allows us to offer an even greater and more appealing value proposition to our customers,” says Hamed El Chiaty, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer and together with his family owner of TRAVCO. “In addition to the clear strategic benefits, we will aim at jointly increasing our added-value offerings through accessing new growth opportunities and realizing operative synergies. At a particularly challenging time for the entire tourism industry, this decisive move strengthens our leadership claim within the leisure business. Together we will shape the hotel industry in Europe and the Middle East for the years to come”
STEIGENBERGER is the stepping-stone of TRAVCO’s worldwide presence, as well as its entry into the city hotel business, particularly in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets, and will further strengthen the Company’s positioning in the quality segment. The mostly complementary businesses of both companies will allow for cross-selling opportunities across the brands and further economies of scale.
The Egypt Based company TRAVCO GROUP is one of the largest integrated tourism groups in the Arab region with over 60 integrated companies in the field of tourism and hospitality and assets in excess of €1.25 billion including; A portfolio of 43 hotels and 9 underway with capacity exceeding 10,500 rooms which are operated by Travco’s hospitality brands JAZ, IBEROTEL and SOL Y MAR in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates; The largest fleet on the Nile Cruises comprising 22 ships and over 1300 cabins managed by the group’s own TRAVCOTELS, JAZ and IBEROTEL; Additionally a low cost airline to be launched later this year. The group represents a powerful force in Egypt's travel, tourism and hospitality industries making it the only fully integrated business in its sector.

Their incoming agency Travco Travel – a joint venture with TUI AG – caters to over 1.3 million guests per year with over 1000 buses and 200 luxury limousines. The destination management company organizes a wide array of travel packages in Egypt and its network of international offices in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Syria, China, Japan, UK and Germany and soon Jordan. Their main source markets are Russia, Germany, Italy, France and the UK.
TRAVCO PROPERTIES is their development arm and the division in charge of construction and marketing for their real estate projects on total land banks exceeding 10 million square meters.

TRAVCO GROUP is the brainchild of its Chairman and CEO Hamed El Chiaty, who founded the company in 1979. Today it’s still fully owned and run by Mr. El Chiaty, his wife Dora and children Karim and Tania. In 2008 it posted consolidated revenues of € 600 million and employs 18,000 people.

The acquisition, makes TRAVCO GROUP one of the largest international owners and operators of diversified group of hotels in Europe and the Middle East with over 142 hotels, resorts and cruises and 25,000 guest rooms in unique geographical locations and an upward spiraling expansion planned introducing 14 new projects in the year to come.

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About Travco Group International Holding S.A.E:

Travco Group International Holding S.A.E is the Egypt’s leading integrated travel and leisure group, providing comprehensive services at home and now across the region.
Established in 1979, the company employs 16,000 people and its network of operations and service branches extends nationwide as well as globally, from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman to Frankfurt, UK, China, Japan, and Qatar and soon in Jordan.
For more information, please visit: http://www.travcogroup.com/