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OPODO ACQUIRES FRENCH ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY- VIVACANCES
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London, July 21, 2005. Opodo, the pan-European online travel company, today announced that it has acquired the French Internet travel agency Vivacances. Vivacances is a key player in the French online travel market, and enjoys a special relationship with Galerie Lafayette’s S’Miles loyalty programme whereby eleven million French households can “earn and burn” points as they shop online. The travel portal was launched in 2002 and offers the full range of travel products including flights, hotels, car hire, trains and package holidays. The company has achieved excellent growth rates - up 276% in the first quarter 2005 compared with the same period 2004. Simon Vincent , CEO of Opodo commented, “Today’s acquisition is the next step in Opodo’s aggressive growth strategy, which over the last six months has seen us grow from three to nine markets and trending towards a billion euros in gross sales by the end of 2005. In France, we now own three core online travel brands – Opodo.fr, Promovacances (Karavel) and Vivacances - together these will strengthen the overall Opodo Group market position in the key French market.” Petra Friedmann , Country Manager for Opodo France continued, “We look forward to working closely with Galeries Lafayette and serving our customers through the extremely successful S’Miles loyalty programme. By uniting Opodo and Vivacances, we will also enjoy increased purchasing power and broaden our consumer appeal. France is the second largest and one of the fastest growing European markets for online travel with Euro 7 billion gross sales forecast to be sold in 2005*. The Opodo companies in France reflect this growth as they continue to go from strength to strength. In the first quarter of 2005, Opodo.fr experienced a 96% growth compared to Q1 2004, whilst Karavel increased by 75% year on year. End Notes to Editors About Opodo Opodo addresses the real needs of today’s traveller by offering an unbiased and competitively priced online travel service for world travel. With access to flights from nearly 500 airlines, over 45,000 hotel properties, 7,000 car hire locations, package holidays, city breaks, lifestyle holidays, ski deals, comprehensive travel insurance and value added services such as airport parking, with Opodo you really can ‘Travel Your Way’. Opodo was created by nine of Europe's leading airlines - Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa. Amadeus, the travel technology company based in Madrid, took a 74% controlling interest in the company in March 2005. Opodo launched its first site (www.opodo.de) in Germany in Nov 2001, its UK site (www.opodo.co.uk) in Jan 2002, its French site (www.opodo.fr) in April 2002 and its Spanish site (www.opodo.es) in May 2005 . Other companies within the Opodo Group: Quest Travel, (one of the UK’s leading independent long-haul travel specialists), Karavel, (a leading French online tour operating company) Eviaggi (Italian online travel agency) and Travellink (Nordic online travel agency) Media contact Gail Sinden Opodo Corporate Communications Tel: + 44 (0) 870 352 5087/8 Fax: + 44 (0) 870 352 5086 Email: gail.sinden@opodo.com or |
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