With headquarters in Innsbruck, the international information, travel and reservation platform Tiscover is by far the largest and most accessed tourism portal in Austria. It is used for presentation purposes by many, from private parties renting rooms to five star hotels and holiday regions. Since its foundation in 1991, Tiscover AG, besides its activities in Austria, has been recognised far beyond its national boundaries as the key company for the development and management of internet travel portals for national travel destinations such as Scotland or Montenegro and regional travel and tourism areas. HRS HOTEL – RESERVATION SERVICE Robbert Ragge GmbH, which has its headquarters in Cologne, was founded in 1972 and currently has around 330 employees and offices in Paris, London, Shanghai and Warsaw.
Tobias Ragge, managing director of HRS: “Tiscover and HRS are forging a significant alliance with great perspectives, which will extend long-term far beyond the existing scope of both businesses. Few e-commerce enterprises in the global travel industry have such a long history of excellent and financially successful innovations for the industry as a whole as Tiscover and HRS. Together, we will make every endeavour to take this success story forward. Our declared aim is to bundle our energies and to continue to develop our position as a market leader in each of the sectors”.
In keeping with Tobias Ragge’s statement, HRS will, in collaboration with Tiscover, in future have exclusive access to what is acknowledged as the best and most comprehensive hotel content by far for the holiday destination of Austria, and will market this internationally. For the Destination Tyrol, as for the Austrian travel industry as a whole, the focus here is on the key market, Germany. Furthermore, HRS will develop its already strong hotel portfolio in the leisure segment. “As the strongest hotel portal in Germany, we will be able to bring important, fresh impulses to the marketing of Austria as a travel destination, to the leading key market Tyrol and, ultimately, to the hotel industry nationwide”.
Tobias Ragge confirms that the Tiscover brand, with regard to its positioning to date as well as its staff in international offices and in Innsbruck, Hagenberg, Villach and Vienna, will be kept on after the takeover. “Now is the time to put diverse synergies to use, in order to continue to develop and strengthen our alliance”, says Tobias Ragge.
HRS will have four delegates on the AG’s supervisory board, and Tobias Ragge as chairman of the board. The supervisory board will also include a representative of Tirol Werbung, as vice chairman of the board, and two employee representatives.
DDr. Herwig van Staa, Head of Government, Tyrol
“Tiscover, with its focus on the non-profit-making management of the internal market, has reached its limits. Tiscover AG has by now grown to become a worldwide player with its own subsidiaries abroad, and activities ranging from Europe to South Africa. The competition in the internet travel market has increased on a massive scale since the foundation of Tiscover AG, and this demands a highly professional management and strong, strategic partners, especially in marketing. The foundations for Tiscover’s privatisation were therefore laid by Tirol Werbung with the participation of private investors like SWAROWSKI and Bank Austria Creditanstalt in 2000 and 2001, and the current sale takes up the recommendations of the Tyrolean internal revenue. With HRS, Tyrol has gained Europe’s market leader for online hotel reservations as a partner; this strengthens the Tiscover company in marketing and sales, and opens up new marketing opportunities for tourism in Tyrol on the German market and beyond. The Tyrol region is particularly proud that it is today recognised worldwide for the innovative idea of Tiscover developed in 1991, which brings long-term recognition to all the parties, persons and businesses involved to date. As the tourism advisor of Tyrol region, the proceeds from the privatisation are also welcomed. These funds will be made available to Tyrol tourism and Tirol Werbung for further innovative and sustainable tourism projects”.
Dr. Jürgen Bodenseer, president of the chamber of commerce, Tyrol
“The commitment of the Ragge family creates huge strategic competitive advantages on the international travel market for Tyrol tourism and the hotel industry in particular due to the sales strength and the enormous marketing potential of HRS. The advantages for Tyrol tourism are created on the one hand by HRS’s excellent position on the German market, the main source market for the Tyrol, and on the other by the worldwide distribution channels that HRS provides, which will also contribute significantly to the marketing of the Tyrol region. A company like Tiscover in this category and on this scale would not be viable in the public sector over the long term, and privatisation was therefore – regardless of contractual obligations – the right decision”.
Josef Margreiter, managing director of Tirol Werbung
“Tiscover has taken on a pioneering role in our tourism industry and, according to an EU-wide survey, Austria also has to thank Tiscover AG for its above average performance in e-commerce. The time has now come to release Tiscover AG into an alliance with a strong strategic partner, which, due to its marketing and sales orientation, enables Tiscover AG and thus ultimately the overall internal tourism sector to create added value and achieve additional growth. HRS offers the Tyrol tourism industry tremendous marketing opportunities, so that the high quality product that Tyrol offers on international online portals is marketed more efficiently, with higher customer frequency levels and a more qualitative and up to date approach. I am particularly pleased that we have found a partner in HRS that is structured, like our Tyrolean businesses, along the lines of a family firm. The strengths should now be bundled together in order to continue to develop a position as market leader in each of the sectors, in the interests of the internal tourism industry. The Tyrol tourism industry can also play an active part in this successful process, as Tirol Werbung will continue to have representatives on the supervisory board of Tiscover AG, and will, as a major client, take part in the next stage of product development.”
Konrad Plankensteiner, managing committee of the Tiscover consortium
“HRS becoming a majority shareholder in the AG has no influence at all on existing customer contracts and agreements. Our new majority shareholder is committed to the further cultivation and development of customer relations and to driving forward our international projects. HRS’ entrance means that Tiscover is taking the pole position in the European online reservations sector. Together, we offer the holiday seeker over 300,000 accommodations and around 950,000 accommodation reviews in Austria, Germany, Europe and worldwide. The online product is supplemented by our comprehensive destination information services, which include weather and snow reports, water temperatures, journey guides and much more. The B2B clients of Tiscover AG, or its subsidiary, profit from the expertise and sales strengths of two successful reservation platforms. Jointly, this brings our portals around 76 million users and almost 1.5 billion page views annually.”
HRS – HOTEL RESERVATION SERVICE: Data and facts
HRS operates a worldwide electronic hotel reservation system for private and corporate travellers based on a database of over 225,000 hotels. The system allows free direct reservation with immediate confirmation at prices updated on a daily basis. The room prices shown for a selected hotel are guaranteed for each reservation. With 90 million views per month and an average of 4.5 million users, HRS is the most successful sales channel for the optimal marketing of vacant hotel rooms. With over 900,000 hotel reviews by guests for guests, HRS offers an ideal orientation aid for hotel reservations.Over 13,000 businesses regularly reserve their rooms for business trips, conferences and group tours with HRS. In doing so, business customers benefit from the bulk buying that allows HRS to offer particularly competitive rates. Businesses that complete their reservations through HRS’ Best Buy functionality, thereby saving considerably on costs, include global players such as IKEA, Metro AG and EADS, as well as many medium-sized and small businesses.
HRS has many years’ experience of the development of innovative service programmes. After all, this international company, which has over 330 employees, has specialised in hotel reservations since 1972. The most recent innovation includes the option of online direct reservations for conferences via HRS – in real time and with prices updated on a daily basis. Time-consuming requests for estimates are thus superfluous. Entire conferences and meetings may be reserved in three simple steps.
The concept and functionality of the leading hotel reservation specialist is confirmed by a series of important awards. Among others, the company was awarded the “Website of the Year” award for the second time in succession in 2007. Europe’s leading hotel portal also won the “ECO Internet Award 2007” in the category “Web portal for business customers”. HRS also won first place in the “Internet hotel reservations” test run by the Computer Bild (German magazine). Just recently, HRS took the “Buying Business Travel Diamond Award 2008“ as the “Best Hotel Booking Engine“ and the “Business Traveller Award” as the “Best Internet travel service provider 2007“.
For further information, see www.HRS.de
Tiscover Facts
Tiscover has its headquarters in Innsbruck, Tyrol. It was founded in 1991 as TIS GmbH, and developed Austria’s first electronic tourism information system. In 1995, TIS@WEB, one of the first travel websites worldwide, went online. The first marketing alliances with international partners followed. In 2000, Tiscover AG was founded as the legal successor of TIS GmbH. Tiscover currently operates tourism portals for Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain and South Africa. Tiscover AG currently has 81 employees and 40 freelancers. There are three subsidiaries: Tiscover Deutschland GmbH in Munich, Tiscover Italia Srl in Trento and Tiscover UK Ltd. in Crawley. In 2007, Tiscover recorded 410 million page views, 22 million users and more than a million queries and reservations.For further information, see www.tiscover.com
