Skift Take
-Justin Dawes
Travel technology holding company Travelsoft Group said today it has acquired Eventiz Media Group, publisher of French travel magazine L’Echo Touristique, founded in 1934.
Eventiz Media also owns TOM.travel and Deìplacements Pros and Pagtour media. And the company organizes several annual events for the French tourism and business travel industry.
Eventiz submitted a document in 2023 to the French government showing that it was in financial difficulties.
The Travelsoft Group has three technological platforms focused mainly on booking and selling travel packages for agents and tour operators. The company claims that its products generate a turnover of 41 million euros, according to its website.
Freìdeìric Vanhoutte, founder of Eventiz, is joining Travelsoft with fewer than 20 employees. Before the deal, Travelsoft had more than 200 employees.
Why buy a media and events company?
Travelsoft CEO and founder Christian Sabbagh said the deal is part of a long-term strategy.
The plan is for Eventiz to house a data service for government tourism offices using booking data from Travelsoft technology companies, with the aim of helping agencies better inform marketing strategy.
Right now, they mainly measure performance based on analyzing tourism numbers after each season ends. The plan would be to provide booking data — like which travelers are going where and how that compares to previous seasons — months in advance.
“Today, that data doesn’t really exist,” Sabbagh said. “And we believe there is really great value in publishing and providing this data to our clients, and especially to tourism boards.”
He said part of the reason the service will come from Eventiz is due to the company’s existing strong relationship with tourism boards, which comes primarily through promotion at its events.
“In the future, Eventiz will be able to not only sell events, but also sell relevant data to its customers,” said Sabbagh.
Meanwhile, Eventiz media companies will continue publishing with the same journalistic standards, he said. The events will also continue and there may be more in the future.
Financial health
The acquisition price was not disclosed.
While Travelsoft’s three technology companies were in strong financial positions, Eventiz was looking for a buyer or restructuring to continue operations, Sabbagh said.
“As it is a small company, economically we can bear not having a very profitable company at the moment, but we hope to be able to change that in the future,” said Sabbagh.
The first priority is not to take Eventiz to profitability, he said, but to leverage its assets for planned projects.
“The result of this should be increased profitability for the company,” he said.
A wave of acquisitions
Sabbagh is also founder and CEO of France-based Orchestra, Travelsoft’s first portfolio company. Travelsoft acquired Germany-based Traffics in 2022 and Spain-based Travel Compositor in 2023.
There are more acquisitions to come, Sabbagh said. The focus is on similar travel technology companies focused on other geographies, or it could be a company that specializes in something that an existing Travelsoft company doesn’t do.
And each acquisition will strengthen the data for the market analysis service it seeks to establish.
“The more we acquire and consolidate the technology market, the more we will have relevant data coming from many exit destinations,” Sabbagh said.
Photo credit: L’Echo Touristique, founded in 1934, has been acquired.
