The travel agency Christian Tour is taking over the agency network of TUI Travel Center Romania, thus becoming the company with the largest number of physical agencies, nationally, the company announced on Wednesday.
The transaction exceeds 1 million euros and will be completed by December 31, as part of Christian Tour’s strategy to prepare for listing on the stock market.
Following this transaction, the TUI Travel Center Romania network will undergo a rebranding process, with all its agencies becoming Christian Tour. Previously, TUI Travel Center Romania was owned, along with the agency network, by the German Touristik company, an entity of the Memento Group, the cited source states.
After the transfer of the network to Christian Tour, German Touristik will continue to remain a Tour Operator under its own brand, becoming the ultra discounter of the Memento Group and focusing its activity on the B2B segment, with ultra low cost accommodation and charter offers with distribution to over 1,000 reseller agencies in Romania.
“Recently, we have made considerable financial and structural efforts to prepare our listing on the stock exchange. We have completely taken over structures or companies in which we were shareholders, or even majority shareholders, to strengthen our position on the market and ensure all the necessary components for a healthy and successful tourism business – from the AnimaWings airline, which became 100% Romanian this year, to the network of agencies, from local players, to agencies that offer niche travel experiences. We now have an impressive portfolio, with a mix of products and services that we offer to our customers, omnichannel, and in the next stage we aim to become the largest online tourism platform in the country”, stated Cristian Pandel, CEO and president of Christian Tour, according to the quoted press release.
German Touristik, the company that owns the TUI network, reached a turnover of over 25 million euros this year, of which approximately 10 million euros represented sales made through the network.
By integrating the 15 agencies taken over from TUI Travel Center and optimizing the existing network, Christian Tour aims to reach 80 points of sale throughout the country, at the beginning of 2025, making up the largest retail network owned by a travel agency in Romania. A member of Christian Tour Holding, Christian Tour is owned by brothers Cristian and Marius Pandel.