France’s Compagnie des Alpes, the world’s largest ski-resort operator, has just taken a 73% stake in a Travelfactory, a major travel booking site that has a division focused on group ski travel. It has an option to buy the rest.
It’s a reflection over the growing fight to control the booking chain, which has seen hotels and airlines fighting for direct booking rather than through agencies, and which has led airlines to offer hotels, cars and tours along with tickets.
At stake is not just bookings and loyalty, but fees, discounts and the ability of powerful online travel agencies to influence travel choices. That’s reflected in CDA’s case, where the company CEO says the purchase “will help us accelerate our development in the integrated distribution of ski holidays, which is in line with our ambition of being able to act directly on the resort occupancy rate.”
And it’s not as if competition within the ski industry is getting any easier. While CDA is the largest operator, it is principally based in the French Alps, although it has been in discussions with Chinese companies aiming to get a foothold in that new market. But world #2 operator, Colorado-based Aspen, which has been aggressively acquiring resort areas across the U.S., has had its eye on overseas properties as well.
Photo: Wurzeller/Wikimedia
