Acquisition completed: DERTOUR Group acquires entire Hotelplan Group, except Interhome

Cologne/Frankfurt, August 29, 2025. After the relevant competition authorities cleared the acquisition of Hotelplan Group by DERTOUR Group, DERTOUR Group has completed the purchase of four of Hotelplan Group’s five business units. This includes the travel agency and tour operator business in Switzerland, Germany and the UK. The exception is the vacation home specialist Interhome, which is being taken over by the HomeToGo Group. This means that the popular and traditional travel brands of the Hotelplan Group are now part of the DERTOUR Group’s tourism network. The DERTOUR Group is already represented by over 180 companies and around 13,000 employees in 16 source markets.

After many months of intensive preparation, the merger has now been legally completed. We would like to thank all the teams involved, who have worked with great commitment to make this step possible. We are very pleased to welcome our colleagues from the Hotelplan Group to the DERTOUR Group. Together we will now grow together as a team. We are approaching this phase with a lot of energy and a clear vision for further profitable growth, says Christoph Debus, CEO DERTOUR Group. Our focus is on the individual needs of travelers in the respective markets, which we want to inspire with even more diverse offers. At the same time, we promise to continue to provide a seamless high level of service. As an internationally renowned travel provider and subsidiary of the cooperatively organized REWE Group, we stand for high reliability, excellence and professionalism.

The vtours package tours, city breaks and round trips will expand the DERTOUR portfolio with immediate effect and also increase the range of offers for sales partners. We are very much looking forward to working with our colleagues in Aschaffenburg, who are known as pioneers in dynamic packaging, says Dr. Ingo Burmester, CEO Central Europe DERTOUR Group.

Continuity for guests and sales partners

The completion of the takeover will have no impact on Hotelplan Group customers: The offers of the popular brands will be retained and developed further in the future, all booked trips will be carried out as planned and all offers can be booked for any desired travel date. The travel agencies in the respective countries will continue to operate. Our commitment to personal advice and the branch business stands, emphasizes Dr. Ingo Burmester.

Bringing new offers to life quickly

Guests should be able to experience the benefits of the merger as quickly as possible. The basis for this is the introduction of a common technological platform, from which the Hotelplan brands will also benefit. IT migration and the connection to shared systems have correspondingly high priority. Against the backdrop of intense competition in the market, closely interlinked cooperation is crucial. System integration, above all the joint production and booking system, is a high priority and is an essential basis and driver for genuine cooperation. We want to act as one team. In this way, we can benefit jointly from economies of scale and further improve our offers for our guests – be it through exclusively offered tours or joint marketing campaigns, says Dr. Ingo Burmester.

Integration relies on close cooperation between the country organizations

This marks the start of the gradual merging of the structures and processes of both organizations. The operational business units in Switzerland will be assigned to DERTOUR Suisse, those in Germany to DERTOUR Deutschland and those in the UK to DERTOUR UK. The group functions of the Hotelplan Group will be integrated into DERTOUR Suisse. This will ensure that the focus remains on the country-specific needs and preferences of travelers in the future. The aim is to further increase local loyalty and guest satisfaction. The DERTOUR Group is thus following its proven strategy of focusing on strong local brands.

Hotelplan Group Management transitions to new country structure

With the completion of the acquisition, management responsibilities will also be restructured and the tasks of the Group Executive Board will be reorganized on a decentralized basis. Against this backdrop, Laura Meyer has decided to continue her career outside the company and will conclude her role as Hotelplan Group CEO on September 30, 2025. Markus Glesti, the long-standing CFO and Deputy CEO of Hotelplan Group, will lead the integration of Hotelplan Group into the respective national companies as Managing Director Hotelplan Group and Business Travel over the next twelve months and ensure a smooth transition. Markus Glesti is also a member of the new Swiss management team, which consists of an equal number of executives from Hotelplan Group and DERTOUR Suisse and is headed by Stephanie Schulze zur Wiesch, CEO DERTOUR Suisse. In Germany, Sabine Jordan-Glaab will continue to lead vtours as CEO and will report to Mark Tantz, managing director of DERTOUR Germany. Executive Board members Torge Petersen, COO Volume Tour Operating Hotelplan Group, Nicole Pfammatter, CEO Hotelplan Suisse, and Joe Ponte, CEO Hotelplan UK, will leave the company at their own request on September 30.

We would like to thank Laura Meyer and all members of the Executive Board of Hotelplan Group for their exceptional commitment over the past months. We have experienced them as a strong leadership team with a high level of personal commitment to Hotelplan Group and its employees. Together, they have confidently led the organization through the long and challenging phase of the sale, emphasizes Christoph Debus. We are particularly pleased about our colleagues in Group Management, who now want to shape our future together as a team with great motivation and enthusiasm. With regard to the German organization, Debus adds: Our heartfelt thanks also go to Torge Petersen, who has played a key role in shaping vtours in recent years. We wish him all the best for his next steps.

I am very proud of what we have achieved together as a team over the past few years: We have profitably expanded our volume business in Germany and Switzerland and made significant progress with digitalization – with the clear goal of providing our customers with even better offers. We have thus created a strong foundation on which the DERTOUR Group will develop even more diverse and attractive travel offers in the future, says Torge Petersen.

DERTOUR Deutschland and vtours combine strengths

DERTOUR Germany is starting the phase of growing together with vtours with great commitment. We can build on shared values. vtours complements the portfolio of DERTOUR and its sister brands ITS and Meiers Weltreisen perfectly; with vfly, we are also adding a brand to our portfolio under which flight-only offers are sold, explains Ingo Burmester and emphasizes: It is important to us that vtours retains its identity. That is why we will retain the company with its established brands as well as the Aschaffenburg location. And we are delighted that Sabine Jordan-Glaab will continue to ensure continuity as CEO.

Sabine Jordan-Glaab, CEO vtours, adds: The DERTOUR Group and vtours already share a common goal: to create a unique vacation experience for our guests. We are looking forward to further developing the vtours brand together with DERTOUR with new ideas and technologies. At the same time, we see great potential in learning from each other and pooling our strengths to create innovative solutions and strengthen our market position in the long term. We are convinced that this will not only benefit our guests, but also offer our employees new perspectives and development opportunities.