„The activities of a company planned to be established will relate to an IT solution, which will enable all companies active in the tourism market to book accommodation services in a more efficient manner,” Gytis Česnuitis, a representative of Novaturas, told BNS.
Česnuitis, the manager of a respective project, told BNS that the system would be accessible to both its developers and other Lithuanian tourism companies.
He would not say when the system could be created adding that the companies had to get clearance from the Competition Council first.
The companies had applied to the Competition Council for the green light to set up a joint venture in which Novaturas would own 51 percent of shares and Baltic Clipper and Vestekspress, which is operating under the name of West Express, would hold 24.5 percent each, the competition authority said earlier on Monday.
Novaturas is one of two top international tour operators active in Lithuania (another one being Tez Tour). Enterprise Investors owns 70.72 percent of its shares and Vidas Paliūnas, Ugnius Radvila and Rytis Sumakaris each own a 9.76-percent stake. Earlier this year, Novaturas rolled out a new low-cost brand Eco Travel.
Baltic Clipper and West Express among the biggest travel agencies in Lithuania.
In June 2012, the competition regulator imposed 5.4 million litas (EUR 1.56m) in fines on 30 travel agencies for prohibited agreements in selling trips online. In April 2013, Vilnius Regional Administrative Court reduced the total amount of fines to 1.9 million litas.
