When Direct Travel in September acquired its longtime partner, U.K.-based ATPI, in a day-to-day sense it was a "non-event," given the long-established working relationship of the two travel management companies, Direct Travel CEO Christal Bemont said.
"What we've been doing is taking what's already been a deeply integrated set of processes and employees and further knitting them together in an even tighter way to create one face to the customer," she said. "There's a tremendous amount of stability because these things were already in place across our working groups."
In terms of global customer impact, however, the acquisition thrust both TMCs onto the global stage to compete in a way they could not before. Together, they are one of the largest global TMCs with a reported total annual travel volume of $6 billion. Prior to the acquisition, Direct Travel was reported to be the sixth-largest TMC in North America, while ATPI was the eighth-largest in Europe, per BTN Europe's Leading TMCs list for 2025.
For customers, the acquisition allows the TMCs to "show up as a single entity" with single points of contact and a global footprint, enhancing its ability to serve global clients while also opening up some new specific verticals—including sports, energy, marine and mining—to Direct Travel, Bemont said.
The acquisition followed the launch of Direct Travel's Avenir Travel Edition, built on the Spotnana platform. The Direct-ATPI partnership already had announced its own rollout of the platform, but as a merged company, they can provide it on a global scale.
That global scale came about at the same time as the exit of global player CWT, due to its completed acquisition by American Express Global Business Travel, and Bemont said customer inquiries have started out strong.
"I don't know if people are running from something or to something, but we are experiencing both of those things," she said. "People are looking at not what just exists today but what the future holds, and people are open to change and expecting change more than ever now."