Travel M&A a driving force set for 2025

There’s been a flurry of M&A activity in the last 90-days with deals being announced weekly vs. monthly in the past. I believe this trend will continue into 2025 for at least the first 9-months. Valuations have started to creep upwards but not much. Buyers are being disciplined, and sellers are not as greedy, thus we are seeing a lot of deals closing.

What’s Driving M&A in Travel

A trifecta. A confluence of both buyers and sellers participating in the market, available cash to deploy and a strong public market.

1.? PE, Strategic, Family office, Non-travel related companies are all interested buyers. Sellers are retiring and younger owners are looking to take $ off the table after the Pandemic. Both sides of the table are interested in doing deals.

2.? There is an abundance of cash on the balance sheet for strategics as their profit margins have increased. Financial investors have cash that must be deployed per their LP mandates or they will be forced to send the money back to their investors.

3.? The public markets are at an all-time high. This is greatly impacting the private market.

M&A Insights

Check out the interview I did with PhocusWire at the Phocuswright Conference below.

Revelations for 2025

1.? The global travel M&A market is "on top" right now.?

2.? No one will go broke in 2025 if they sell their company too early.

3.? A $25M post $ investment valuation in 2024 is not worth $25M in the open market as an acquisition.

4.? Investors and acquirers will continue to value recurring revenue more than transactional revenue.

5.? The closer your product or service is to the transaction the more you’ll be worth. If you are the transaction you're gold.

6.? Travel content will become the least valuable product or service in the travel industry.

7.? AI will help travel advisors this year, then start slowly replacing them in 2026.

8.? Travel as a Subscription service will become a more prevalent revenue model in travel and eventually become the most valuable revenue model in the industry.

I help CEOs build sellable travel companies and achieve successful exits through a global network.

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