Interest in buying and selling travel companies is picking up, according to Bob Sweeney, president and owner of Innovative Travel Acquisitions Inc. He told TravelMole the company had a record first half of 2004.
“We sold 22 tour and travel businesses with a combined income of over $650 million,” he said.
Mr Sweeney started his company — believed to be the only one of its kind in handling only travel businesses — in 1991. He had been working on Wall Street and became interested in the travel field. “I saw a very big opportunity in a field that was deserted,” he said.
In 13 years, he has handled 471 businesses.
Understandably, he said, travel businesses are usually considered high-risk.
“If you look at 100 different industries to buy, and rate those investment by safety, travel would be 97 or even 100,” he said.
Despite that, however, business is brisk, he said.
His largest recent sell involved the $460 million Tzell Travel of New York, NY. “We’re not bound by size, We’ve sold half a billion dollar companies but most of them are in the $4 to $5 million range,” he said.
The biggest problem for both buyers and sellers of travel businesses is being realistic, according to Mr Sweney.
“Each party, buyer and seller, has to for one minute look at the deal from the other parties perspective,” he said. “When they do that, we can do a deal.”
Report by David Wilkening
