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WTM 2016: Hotelbeds announces growth plan for Transfer & Activity Bank

Hotelbeds Group plans to triple the sales of its Transfer and Activity Bank (Tab) during the coming years.

This will be driven by expanding the existing product portfolio to include additional tours, transfers and activities.

The B2B travel services provider also pledged to continue to focus on providing its partners with “best-in-class” technology solutions to make the upselling of ancillaries simpler and quicker.

The company offers more than 19,000 transfer options and 12,000 activity options in more than 650 destinations including theatre, sport and theme park tickets, excursions and car rental.

Partners include Disney Parks, Legoland, and Open Camp, the first park in the world dedicated to sport.

Tab managing director Javier Arévalo said : “Several years ago we identified the opportunity for intermediaries to increase revenues via the online upselling of ancillary services such as tours, transfers and activities.

“We have pioneered the online distribution market ever since and customer feedback has been superb.

“Now we plan to take this to another level by expanding the product range further and developing our technology to provide our customers with the best possible solutions – creating a virtuous circle that will in turn attract more intermediaries to the platform and increase sales further still.”

Utilising advanced technology platforms including XML API, white label and online widget solutions, Tab’s portfolio is distributed to more than 35,000 travel intermediaries globally in 120 source markets via the Hotelbeds Group distribution platform, as well as via is own brands, including Hotelextras, Isango, Guidego and Let’s Shuttle.

The move came after Hotelbeds claimed strong sales from the UK in 2015-16 – the most important source market worldwide.

Spain was the top country followed by the US, Greece, Italy and Portugal. The fastest growing destinations for UK travellers were Spain, the US, Portugal, UAE and Mexico.

However, Turkey, France and Morocco saw the greatest decrease compared to the previous year.

Carlos Muñoz, the group’s bedbank managing director, said: “Despite fierce competition in a market that shrunk this year, it gives me great pleasure to confirm that once again we have both grown significantly and outperformed in our most important outbound market.

“In 2017 we´ll be even more committed to our investment in cost-effective technology that generates additional revenues for our partners.”

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