Venture buys into Holiday Asia title

Singapore-based Venture Asia has acquired a majority stake in Asian Bridge Media (ABM), the publisher of Holiday Asia. The purchase is part of Venture's plans to aggressively expand its business to become the premier publisher of travel news and information. "The acquisition will help create a dominant grouping of travel titles that aspire to quality," ABM co-owner and Holiday Asia publisher Vijay Verghese told MEDIA. The purchase comes after Mr Verghese recently parted company with Times Publishing to run Holiday Asia under ABM. This grouping of travel publications will also provide content to support a website, he added. Taken altogether, the online and offline offering will cater to readers' needs and tastes and it will allow for a wider and more flexible range of packages for advertisers. Group chairman Dato Amin Shah said, "We plan to be the biggest and best travel service provider in a short space of time." Venture's other travel and trade titles consist of Tourism Asia, TravelAsia, Meetings & Conventions Asia Pacific and SilkAir inflight magazine, Silkwinds. The group plans to expand to 10 titles this year by using the acquisitions route. Mr Verghese said the ultimate goal would be to set up an e-business platform. "This is currently under development and there could be a range of activities such as putting content online and earning referral commissions when consumers book a holiday package via our website. "Tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry in Asia and we want to expand that pie and take a bite out of it," he said. However, he said it was unlikely the group would go into the travel agency business. "We don't want to be a travel agent. It's not our core competency, which is about the dissemination of quality travel content."

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