New York-based Altour International earlier this month finalized its acquisition of Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Revel Travel, bringing its estimated annual air sales to more than $300 million. Both companies managed travel for entertainment companies, touring bands, and the fashion industry.
Altour International said it managed about $240 million in annual travel sales—roughly $100 million generated from East Coast clients and $100 million from the West Coast—making it one of the top five travel agencies in New York and Los Angeles. The company also has corporate travel management business in Paris and London.
Business Travel News in 2003 ranked Altour as the 22nd-largest corporate-owned travel agency; Revel was unranked. Altour declined to release sales information to BTN in 2004.
Altour International executive vice president Barry Noskeau said about 65 percent of the company's newly expanded business will be in the corporate and entertainment market.
Revel Travel president Jack Revel, who will become president of Revel Travel at Altour, said in a statement the acquisition will bring to clients more services and "the most competitive pricing."
Noskeau added that Revel Travel will maintain its own identity within Altour International, yet be able to leverage several other areas of business within the company.
"Jack Revel and his operations staff will remain in charge of that particular division," Noskeau said. "There will be an ability to bring a broader range of products and services to Revel Travel customers. A good example of that is technology: online booking products and the other types of automated products available in the corporate marketplace, whether they be electronic profiles or online client surveys."
Altour also owns a New York-based black car service, a consulting company, and an incentive management company, representing other Altour offerings that Revel clients will be able to access, Noskeau said.
"We maintain a separate standalone software company that is in the business of delivering Web-based management tools for incentive programs," Noskeau said. "We market that under Altour Incentive Management and have a major licensing agreement with American Express. We also have several software developers and we use that technical knowledge to bring software into the travel company as well."