A discussion with Marta Alvarez, Sales & Marketing Director in Hotelbeds, who talks about the global travel distribution market and Hotelbeds future business plans.
TravelDailyNews: Ms Alvarez, how did Hotelbeds perform in 2013? and which regions responded better?
Marta Alvarez: 2013 was another very successful year for Hotelbeds, continuing to build on the strong presence and leading market position as the number one global B2B bedbank, whilst maintaining double digit growth rates. We continued to increase our presence globally, expanding in the source markets and destinations in emerging markets of the Americas, Asia and Africa.
In 2013, Hotelbeds announced over 20% global sales growth, with 1.8 billion euros in sales. We now have over 60,000 hotels available for clients and the website hotelbeds.com registers 1.5 billion online accommodation searches per month. Our new payment at hotel model, Liberate, is expanding in new markets and offers a significant reduction of operating costs, as well as no credit limit for online distributors. In 2013, Hotelbeds also launched new client relationship centers in Europe, North America and LATAM, with the fourth currently being implemented in Asia. These centers provide points of contact and 24/7 service and dealt with 1.7 million customer requests in 2013. XML connections grew by 50%, linking Hotelbeds inventory and third party booking systems.
Regarding the regions which responded better, MEAPAC (Middle East and Asia Pacific) remained the fastest growing region for Hotelbeds with Thailand as the best-selling destination, followed by Malaysia, one of the fastest selling countries last year achieving 74% growth. Destinations such as the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan also had triple digit growth rates. In Europe, Spain remained the top-selling destination for Hotelbeds. Greece (58%) was our fastest growing destination in the Mediterranean region in comparison with the previous year.
USA was the top destination for customers in the Americas region with Brazil being the fastest growing destination for 2013, up 55%.
TDN: What are your expansion plans for the next 3 years?
M.A.: For the next years we are focused on becoming the most forward thinking player in travel distribution, developing our outstanding product offering, our best in class technology platform hotelbeds.com and our leadership position.
Hotelbeds has an ambitious expansion plan over the next years, which includes continuing to build Hotelbeds’ global presence and leading market position whilst maintaining double digit growth rates. Significant investment in IT, distribution and product contracting will be part of Hotelbeds’ future growth plans as well.
By 2018, we expect to consolidate our expansion in international markets, especially in the Asian and African markets as destinations. During the same time period, Hotelbeds will be focused on its expansion plans in the Americas source markets and destinations, Asia and Eastern Europe, while maintaining its growth in the other European markets. We also expect to grow our hotels portfolio up to 3 times its actual size by 2018.
In the future the focus will also be on growing the new Hotelbeds brand Activities, selling transfers, activities and experiences to the travel industry as a whole.
TDN: Does Hotelbeds plan to acquire some companies in the near future?
M.A.: Hotelbeds has combined organic growth with some strategic acquisitions during the past years. We only decide to make an acquisition when we find a very strategic business for our company.
TDN: Where do you focus your activity right now?
M.A.: For the next two years, we expect growth rates of more than 40% in MEAPAC and more than 20% in the Americas. At the moment, MEAPAC is the largest geographic market for Hotelbeds worldwide and we have been steadily growing our presence in this region over the past few years. It is also the fastest growing region due to its size, scale and market opportunities in destinations like Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, among others.
In the Americas, we are increasing our workforce in countries like Brazil, the fastest growing destination in 2013, up to 55%. We are also increasing our offer in the Caribbean.
Regarding Europe, we expect strong performance in Eastern countries. In the Mediterranean region, Greece is one of our most popular destinations, where we sold nearly half a million roomnights in 2013, 55% of increase in comparison to the previous year.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
