The Orizonia Group (''Orizonia Corporaciόn'' in Spanish) was a Spanish tour operator which was founded in 2006. The company was based on the Spanish island of

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

, in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. It was the third largest tour operator in Spain.

Background

The Orizonia Group was born out of Grupo Iberostar, a Spanish tourism group split into three divisions: Iberostar Hotels and Resorts; Grupo Receptor; and Grupo Emisor. Iberostar Hotels and Resorts owned the accommodation service for the company while Grupo Receptor owned travel agencies and Grupo Emisor owned tour operators, a cruise line, retail travel agencies and

airlines An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in whic ...

.“Iberworld - The First Eleven Years” – ''

Airliner World ''Airliner World'' is an aviation magazine published by Key Publishing in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. In the United States, the magazine is distributed from Key Publishing office in Avenel, New Jersey. The first edition of ''Airliner World' ...

'', March 2009 In 2006 the owner of Grupo Iberostar, Miguel Fluxà, decided to sell Grupo Receptor and Grupo Emisor, while keeping Iberostar Hotels. The sale price was in excess of Euro 800 million=. In March 2006, Fluxá had 12 offers for Grupo Receptor and Emisor and in July a deal was confirmed. The Carlyle Group from the United Kingdom took 55%, Vista Capital from Spain bought 36% while ICG Equity Fund purchased 5% and ten managers of the company acquired the remaining 4%. In 2007, their first full year of trading, Orizonia reported a turnover of Euro 2.676 billion which was an increase of 11.4% over 2006 (Euro 2.402 billion). In February 2013, Orizonia applied for "Pre-concurso de acreedores", a type of bankruptcy to protect itself from creditors, and communicated to its workers that it was ceasing operations.El Mundo article February 2013
Retrieved 18 February 2013 With this type of ¨bankruptcy¨ more than 5000 workers were fired without paying settlements and salaries and more than Euro 900 million in debts to the suppliers.

Companies

The Orizonia Group took ownership of several travel agencies; tour operator Iberojet; retail travel agencies Viajes Iberia and Quo Viajes; two airlines called Orbest and Orbest Orizonia Airlines, the first one based in Portugal; among others. The company was a major stakeholder in

Ibero Cruises Ibero Cruises ( es, Ibero Cruceros) was a British-American and Spanish owned cruise line based in Madrid, Spain. The cruise line was aimed at the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets. Iberocruceros operated voyages from Europe, the Mediterran ...

, which owned in conjunction with

Carnival Corporation & plc Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carniv ...

, and which replaced its own cruise line ''Iberojet Cruceros'' in 2007.

References

Travel and holiday companies of Spain {{Spain-company-stub