Livn expands into Asia

TOUR and activities aggregator Livn has announced plans to boost its staff and expand into Asia and India as the business continues its rapid growth.

The Australian company has appointed former Uniglobe South Asia ceo Raja Natesan to head up a sales and marketing presence in India and is looking to make a similar appointment in South East Asia, based in Singapore.

Livn has also added to its sales, marketing and reservations teams in its Sydney headquarters, boosting staff by 50%.

They include Monna Sanner as business development director and Lia Geraissate as the company’s marketing manager.

“After an initial focus on getting the technology right we are now moving strongly into the sales and marketing phase,” said Livn chief executive officer Mark Rizzuto.

Livn had grown its distribution platform to now feature more than 30,000 products across 3,000 destinations and 196 countries, Rizzuot said, up from 22,000 products in Sep.

“We are on target to reach 45,000 products by Jun,” he said.

“With the new team members and momentum we have, Livn is well-placed to capitalise on the enormous opportunities that exist in the tours and activities space.”

Livn sources tours and activities via an API feed, making them available in an instantly bookable form to the trade.

“It’s extremely efficient, getting travel agents off the phone to wholesalers and operators, creating the same centralised efficiencies as the GDS have traditionally provided in air, car and hotel,” Rizzuto said.