Destinia plans to grow in the B2B business

The travel group relies on technology as a motor for growth

Landing in Mexico will be TOR Travel’s next step

The purchase of TOR System, Transhotel’s technology, in July 2016 resulted in a turning point: We redefined our strategic project and took a chance on the B2B business. “We’ve been a technological company since the very beginning and up until now, we’ve focused on B2C and helping other traditional agencies take the plunge into the online world. Now, we have an ambitious expansion plan in the B2B area that we hope will provide 50% of the group’s turnover by 2021,” says Ricardo Fernández Flores, Destinia Group’s Strategy Director.

The tourism business is changing, and we want to provide a service and add value to all tourism stakeholders. “In the more than 15 years with Destinia, we’ve learned what the end consumer wants. And, as a company, we want to tackle three of the challenges that tourist companies face: access to the product, access to the online world, and access to technology.

Ricardo Fernández Flores, Chief Strategy Officer.

Various aspects will be covered with TOR Travel. On the one hand, it will be the platform to access all kinds of products (hotels, flights, flight+hotel, transfers, cars, insurance…), something that no traditional bed bank offers nowadays. “As wholesalers, we aim to help agencies reach whoever they want, wherever they want, and with the best technology,” explains Fernández Flores. Nearly 5,000 agencies in the Iberian Peninsula have already signed up for the system. “We will keep adding agencies and we strive to grow with local partners in the markets that we consider to be strategic such as Portugal, with the recent partnership with Consolidador, and Mexico, the next market in which we’re going to enter,” he adds.

But TOR Travel will also enable us to be a technological solution provider for tourism distribution, rather than just a platform to access the product. “The value that we add to our product portfolio is the fact that we use accumulated experience to provide other companies with solutions, ranging from connectivity to payment methods,” assures Fernández Flores.

The B2B circle is closed with a third area of development carried out by Onlinetravel, our own brand that gives online access to traditional agencies. Currently, we serve over 1,500 agencies in Spain, Portugal, and MENA.

“The B2B area has an enormous growth potential and we feel confident that, once it starts up a year from now, we’ll be able to reach a turnover of 30 million euros. Initially, TOR will contribute the most to the company, but in the future, being a technology provider should be the driving force of the B2B busines unit,” adds Fernández Flores.