Online
Travel Corporation Company Information ( OTC )
About
The Online Travel Corporation Company ( OTC )
Online Travel Corporation ( OTC ) is the UK's leading online
travel supplier/retailer, owning and powering 80 websites with over
2m unique users a month. The company provides its service online
and offline (call-centre) to the leisure, corporate and trade markets.
In 2002 alone OTC processed over 450,000 transactions and made £105m
in pro-forma sales.
Established
in 1998, OTC offers the most comprehensive e-travel service in Europe,
and provides the most extensive range of tailored travel content
- including flights, hotels and package holidays - to over 80 of
the best-known websites, accounting for over 7m users. Sites powered
by OTC include AOL, Virgin.net, Freeserve, Btopenworld, Tiscali,
Priceline, The Telegraph and The Mirror, as well as Zuji, Altavista
and Web Wombat in Australia.
In
addition to delivering content, OTC owns 12 leading B2C travel websites,
serving over 500,000 customers a year. The company's portfolio includes
Bargainholidays.com, the UK's leading online seller of package holidays;
Onlinetravel.com, the fastest-growing independent travel site; 1Ski.com,
the leading ski holidays website; A2bTravel.com, the premier online
travel information and reservations service, and Ferrybooker.com
the UK's most comprehensive online ferry bookings resource.
In
October 2001 launched its pioneering Build-Your-Own (BYO) technology,
a solution enabling travellers to build tailor-made deals online
by combining flights and hotels. Since it launched the self-packaging
market in October 2001, OTC has seen a dramatic take-up of its BYO
technology, which now accounts for 28% of bookings across its consumer
brands and partner sites. OTC has additionally signed a number of
licensing deals for its BYO technology, including an agreement with
Asia-Pacific giant Zuji.
In
December 2002, OTC extended its licensing strategy with the launch
of Envoy, a business travel management system, which OTC will seek
to licence to other business travel companies.
OTC is also the UK's leading provider of travel concessions, offering
discounted travel, group travel arrangements and call centre support
to a wealth of organisations including travel trade clubs, affinity
groups, magazine publishers and sports clubs. These include the
40,000-member Travel Agents Travel Club, the British Airways' Preferred
Agents Travel Club, Thomas Cook's Staff Travel Club, and the Money
Club.
Recently,
OTC announced an ambitious global expansion strategy to build on
its success in the UK. As part of the plan, OTC acquired leading
Dublin-based travel agency Viva Travel to deliver local travel content
and services to OTC's ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and media
partners in the Irish Republic. OTC also entered the Asia-Pacific
market, launching a dedicated Australian consumer website (www.otctravel.com.au)
in early 2002 and purchasing leading Australian travel call centre
operation Sydney Travel Centre in August 2002. To further boost
its position in this new market, OTC announced the win of a licensing
deal to provide its breakthrough Build-Your-Own (BYO) technology
to Zuji, the largest online travel company in Asia Pacific, in November
2002.
Based
in Twickenham, Middlesex, OTC has regional offices in Dublin, Edinburgh
and Syndey and employs 250 staff. OTC is a publicly listed company
and was launched on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the
London Stock Exchange in May 2000.
Fraser
House
15 London Road
Twickenham
TW1 3ST
London
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