Tyrolean holiday agency snatches majority stake in UK firm
A leading Austrian travel company has acquired a majority interest in London-based Hotels & More Ltd.Travel Partner GmbH, which has an office in Vienna and its headquarters in the Tyrolean town of Ellmau, announced today (Weds) it purchased a 73 per cent share in the British company.Hotels & More Ltd. has 40 employees, according to Travel Partner GmbH. The Austrian company, which was founded in 1985, is one of the biggest names on the Austrian tourism industry sector.It focuses on offering family holidays, relax trips, skiing vacations and other specialised holiday stays in Austria to people in Germany, Belgium, Ireland, France among other countries.Travel Partner GmbH has 66 employees. It registered 290,000 customers in 2009, up by around 10,000 year on year and from 250,000 in 2008.Meanwhile, hotels across Austria hope for last minute bookings around New Years Eve (Fri).Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers will celebrate the occasion in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and the hundreds of winter sport resorts in western and southern Austria.Temperatures will range between minus eight and zero degrees centigrade around midnight on New Years Eve, according to forecasts from today.This prediction comes after drastically lower temperatures on most nights this week as the quicksilver dropped to minus 20 degrees centigrade in vast parts of the country.