The 2025 Hotlist

ORGANISATIONS

AMEX GBT & CWT

A meeting of the mighty?
Will they or won’t they? The fate of Amex GBT’s planned acquisition of CWT currently lies in the hands of regulators in the UK and in the United States whose concerns about the mega-merger are centred on a lessening of competition, reduced innovation, and the potential for rising customer costs and poorer service. Amex GBT has criticised the methodologies and findings of both processes, lambasting in particular the identification of a global multinational (GMN) sector with needs that can be met by only a handful of TMCs – or what Amex GBT calls “a fundamentally erroneous market definition” that does not exist. “Customers have a spectrum of travel requirements. But they are, in essence, substantially similar,” it said. If the deal goes through, the combined company will dwarf its nearest competitors. If it doesn’t, the CMA believes CWT will remain a significant competitor, having put its financial difficulties behind it. Others believe Amex GBT would still come out on top because CWT needs GBT more than GBT needs CWT. In January, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority pushed its decision deadline back by six weeks to 9 March.

SERKO

Shaking up the market
New Zealand-based booking tool provider Serko is upping the ante in 2025. On 7 January it confirmed the completion of its US$12 million acquisition of GetThere from Sabre and then five days later announced the appointment of business travel luminary Johnny Thorsen in the newly created role of vice president of strategic business development. The addition of GetThere puts Serko second only to Concur in terms of North American marketshare and complements its Zeno and Booking.com for Business platforms. It has also signed a five-year partnership with Sabre to develop new product capabilities and broaden its customer base. Serko co-founder and CEO Darrin Grafton said the company would be investing US$100 million over the next three years to “build the travel platform of the future” and has not ruled out further acquisitions. As for Thorsen, who departs Spotnana after nearly four years at the business, he’s back on familiar ground, having served as EMEA director of business development for GetThere in its early days some 25 years ago. Grafton praised Thorsen’s “ability to anticipate trends” in the travel industry, his passion for innovation and his skills that “bring transformative ideas to life.”

RYANAIR

Courting corporates
Europe’s largest airline appears to be taking its latest move into corporate travel more seriously than previous efforts after its fares went live in the new iteration of the Concur Travel booking platform in October. Furthermore, it has also signed deals with third party distributors including Travelfusion and Kyte to help bolster its presence on business travel platforms. It’s also working again with GDSs. But with Ryanair there always seem to be complications, such as its online customer verification process for bookings made via certain third parties. This has caused plenty of problems for corporates and business travellers, and it is also the subject of an ongoing inquiry by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. Still, Ryanair is a huge player in Europe – carrying 197.2 million passengers in 2024 – and targeting an increase to 250 million by 2030 and to 300 million by 2034. That’s plenty of seats to fill, so maybe the Irish carrier will be more committed to the managed business travel sector than it was a decade ago, when its presence on GDSs was short-lived.

TRAVELPERK

Taking it stateside
Barcelona-based TravelPerk was already gaining ground in the US when co-founder and CEO Avi Meir slammed the accelerator on last year with the acquisition of Chicago-based travel management company AmTrav. The acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, doubled TravelPerk’s US revenues, which had grown 65 per cent year-over-year in 2023. It also brought TravelPerk new offices in Boston, Los Angeles and Miami in addition to AmTrav’s Chicago headquarters. Back in Europe, the TMC’s organic growth has moved it into the continent’s top ten largest TMCs, ranking eighth with €1 billion in European sales in Europe’s Leading TMCs 2024, up from 13th the previous year. The company has also significantly boosted its access to capital. Alongside the AmTrav acquisition, it announced a new credit facility of up to $135 million, backed by Blackstone Credit & Insurance and Blue Owl Credit, having already detailed at the beginning of 2024 a $104 million funding round led by Japanese technology investment firm SoftBank.

LUFTHANSA GROUP

Flexing its muscles
2025 has kicked off with a bang for the Lufthansa Group. The European aviation giant completed its €325 million deal to acquire a 41 per cent stake in Italy’s ITA Airways in January, with an option to purchase the remaining 59 per cent. This follows years of negotiation and a series of concessions to EU regulators that involved relinquishing slots at Italian airports to other carriers. Italy will now become another home market for the group, with hubs at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate set to play “a prominent role” and Lufthansa promising a “timely integration” with “offers and optimised connections” to begin this summer. Joint loyalty benefits, codeshare connections and ITA’s admission to Star Alliance are also planned. Presumably, Lufthansa’s recently introduced “environmental cost surcharge” will also be applied to ITA flights. In effect since 1 January 2025, the surcharge of up to €72 applies to all flights originating within the European Union, United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland. Announcing the surcharge in June 2024 (and eliciting a mixed response), Lufthansa said it resulted from “steadily rising additional costs due to regulatory environmental requirements”. Is it a trend that other airlines will follow?

CISALPINA TOURS

International expansion
Italian TMC Cisalpina Tours began its ambitious international expansion in 2022 after a series of acquisitions in Turkey and Brazil. It also established outposts in the US and Cyprus. In the 24 months that followed, Cisalpina opened additional offices in Germany, France, Spain, the UK and Switzerland. In 2025, its reach will extend to Africa and the Asia-Pacific region with plans to establish operations in Australia, China, India and South Africa. Ranked as the second largest TMC in Italy in 2024 with gross annual sales of €500 million (including €29.6 million from its international business units), Cisalpina is now claiming its place on the global stage. Founded in 1970 as part of the BluVacanze Group – owned by shipping giant MSC – the company has seven offices in Italy, more than 500 employees and serves more than 800 large corporate clients, according to its 2023 financial statement. Watch this space.

ROSEWOOD HOTELS

Grand openings
While it’s been traditional for some years to include in the Hotlist a nod to one of Europe’s most anticipated hotel openings, more often than not the grand throwing open of its doors has slipped into the following year, such are the vagaries of hotel development. But this time we’re doffing our cap to Rosewood Hotels which has two major European additions in the pipeline, doubling our chances of a timely callout. First up is the Rosewood Amsterdam, situated within the former Palace of Justice – built in 1665 – and marking the brand’s debut in the Netherlands. Located in the city’s UNESCO World Heritage-listed Canals District and comprising 124 guestrooms and suites, bookings are now open for stays from 1 June. Also taking shape in a familiar building is the group’s second property in London. The Chancery Rosewood is housed in the Grade II-listed former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square (pictured) and will include 146 guestrooms, ballroom and retail outlets. It is scheduled to open towards the end of the year which, based on our previous form, likely means its first guests won’t arrive until 2026.