Excite expands into US

EXCITE Holidays has revealed plans for an expansion into the United States, having reached agreements with key consortia ahead of a launch next month.

At a celebration of the company’s 15th birthday in Sydney yesterday, co-founders George Papaioannou and Nicholas Stavropoulos outlined expansion plans and a new technology offering.

Stavropoulos told TD Excite had inked agreements with some of the larger retail consortia in the US, with new sales staff in place on the east and west coasts in readiness for a 30 Nov debut.

“We’ve signed a preferred agreement with TPI, as well as a huge home-based agency with 6,000 agents and we have a couple of others that are at signing stage now that will give us thousands and thousands of more agents accessing our offering,” he said.

Stavropoulos hinted at further expansion into the Canadian and South African markets saying they would be “logical markets easier to penetrate”.

A key driver of expansion would be Excite’s proprietary technology designed around retailers needs, with access to more than 250,000 hotels and over 30,000 activities for agents to source from.

Stavropoulos said Excite also aimed to increase its presence as an inbound player (see page 4).

“We’re making a real difference for the travel agent and to their businesses making them more productive and more profitable allowing them to compete against many of the direct consumer sites,” he said.