Hotelbeds, the leading global accommodation wholesaler, announced its plans to grow the brand in the Asian region at ITB Asia. The event, an annual B2B travel trade show, was held at Marina Bay Sands from 17-19 October 2012.
Hotelbeds is the travel trade’s most successful accommodation provider supplying over 45,000 hotels across 147 countries to travel agents, airlines and tour operators. Now in its tenth year of operations, Hotelbeds is focusing on expanding in the Middle East and Asia Pacific region. MEAPAC is comprised of the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Pacific Islands, and is the largest region for Hotelbeds worldwide. It is also the fastest growing of Hotelbeds regions due to its size, scale and the market opportunities.
In the past years, Hotelbeds has been steadily growing its presence throughout MEAPAC. It now has 21 offices and employs about 750 people. Regional clients and suppliers include Panorama, Excite, HotelTravel, DirectRooms, Hotelbank, Centara Hotels & Resort Starwood, Jumeirah, Address, Ginger Hotels, Park Hotels, Jing Jiang, Kosmopolito and Regal.
Carlos Muñoz, Managing Director of Hotelbeds said, “We have built leading positions in Europe and across the Americas for Hotelbeds. MEAPAC is where we see the greatest opportunities. It is now the fastest growing area of our business and an area we are very excited to be developing and investing in”.
Hotelbeds is currently developing strong expansion plans in the region, namely:
An estimated 40% future growth for the MEAPAC region by 2015, outperforming the estimated market growth (9.1%)
Increasing Hotelbeds workforce by 25% across the region by 2015
Doubling the hotel portfolio in the next -five years, with particular focus on Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan.
Developing the distribution coverage and further expansion of the source markets and destinations across the region, particularly Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China & Philippines.
Pablo Aycart, Managing Director, Hotelbeds MEAPAC stated: “Our local and source market teams, working closely with our customers and suppliers, have achieved excellent results in the region so far. We are now investing for future growth by increasing our hotel inventory and workforce, and expanding in the source markets and destinations to ensure that we continue to outperform the market.”
