WTM 2015: US Wholesaler Tourico Holidays Adds Greek Islands to ‘Sun & Sea’ Portfolio

Crete. Photo: © Andrei Nekrassov / Shutterstock

The Greek islands are among the Eastern Mediterranean vacation destinations that US global travel wholesaler Tourico Holidays has entered for the first time and is preparing for growth. Tourico Holidays, a subsidiary of Travel Holdings Inc., is an over billion dollar company with 36,000 property partners around the world in 4,500 destinations globally and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

WTM 2015 – Asi Ginio, COO of Travel Holdings; Ellen Forrest, Vice President Product Development North America of Tourico Holidays; and Stephen Skidgel, EVP Global Product Development of Travel Holdings.

“We just started an initiative to contract what we are calling the ‘sun & sea’ destinations that include the Greek islands, the Adriatic and the Algarve”, Stephen Skidgel, EVP Global Product Development at Travel Holdings, told the Greek Travel Pages (GTP) during the World Travel Market (WTM) trade show held recently in London.

The Greek islands Tourico Holidays has initially focused on are Kos, Crete and Corfu.

Known for its vacation offers in big city destinations, which include Athens, Tourico Holidays launched the initiative following customer interest in the Eastern Mediterranean.

“Certainly in order to grow our business and to be more relevant to our customers we need to have this piece of the Mediterranean.”

The company expects the new regions to bring many benefits to both its customers and its suppliers.

Paleokastritsa in Corfu, Greece.

When asked if Greece’s economic problems were a concern for the company, Mr Skidgel told GTP that he expects things to change in time.

“We will continue as planned in both Athens and the Greek islands”, he said.

“I think there is alot of opportunity for Greek tourism. There may be certain political situations that are sometimes tough to get over, but that is the right time to go in and try to strike a deal and bring business to the area.”

Tourico Holidays is offering ExclusiveDeals in the new markets, which provide pre-purchased hotel room blocks.

“Anything that is branded with Tourico’s ExclusiveDeal is a strategic partnership that we have with a hotel”, Mr Skidgel said.

This form of booking enables flexible terms and rate structures, guarantees a monthly income stream, provides for incremental business, and includes complementary marketing. Tourico Holidays was the first global distributor to pioneer this type of contracting.

Tourico Holidays began contracting the Greek islands as of August 2015 for next summer.