As one French travel trade publication put it, JTB, with the establishment of a headquarters office in Paris for its JTB Europe unit, is out “to conquer Europe.”
The company’s action indicates that, along with other corporate moves in the past year-and-a-half, it is trying to increase its global footprint. With its new Paris location, JTB Europe intends to be one of the key players in the MICE sector in Europe. In addition to setting up in Paris, the subsidiary of the JTB group is also putting the finishing touches to the constitution of its teams in 15 European countries.
Last year JTB acquired what was left of the Swiss tourism group Kuoni Global Travel Services (MICE and groups), restructured the operation, making it JTB Europe Corporate Events & Trade. The new JTB entity has also launched its corporate website www.jtbeurope.com.
Of the move, a JTB company statement said, “JTB’s European teams offer turnkey events of all sizes in France, Europe and around the world, from large conventions to more confidential meetings, all accredited by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and European offices organizing more of 3,000 events a year.” The statement indicated that JTB Europe is currently finalizing the constitution of all its offices and will communicate soon on its French team, its strategy and its ambitions on the French market.
The Paris office is headed by Eijiro Yamakita, president & CEO of JTB Europe, who added, “France is a strategic market for JTB Europe which has also set up its headquarters in Paris. The new website has been designed to make our customers discover the new high-end services and give them easier access to our teams locally and around the world.”
Creation of the new Paris operation comes after a move in June 2017 in which by Brazil’s largest tour operator/travel agency—CVC—that it has retained JTB Americas to serve CVC’s customers New York, Florida and California in the United States, suggests that it is trying to expand its footprint in both North America and South America through the synergy brought about by its partnership with JTB and the latter’s global network, which includes subsidiaries in Brazil. (JTB has long has had a presence in Brazil, a country with the largest population of people of Japanese ancestry outside of Japan.)
In March of last year JTB acquired a large share in Panorama Tours Indonesia. JTB said at the time that it planned to use Panorama’s customer base and network of 53 locations across 24 cities to sell Japanese tours and other products … and to increase the size of its footprint in Asia.
