Despegar, the Latin American travel technology company, has entered a strategic partnership with Civitatis, the leading platform for tours and activities in Spanish and Portuguese. The collaboration will integrate Civitatis’s catalog of excursions, guided tours, and experiences directly into Despegar’s booking platform, giving the OTA’s 30 million users access to a broader range of in-destination products.
The move reflects a growing trend among online travel agencies to bundle activities alongside flights, hotels, and car rentals. For Despegar, the partnership adds a layer of experiential inventory that has traditionally been fragmented across local operators and smaller aggregators. Civitatis, which already operates across Europe and the Americas, gains a direct channel into one of Latin America’s largest travel audiences.
Brazil as a Strategic Anchor
Brazil is expected to be a focal point of the integration. Despegar holds a strong position in the Brazilian market, and Civitatis has built a significant presence in Portuguese-speaking regions. The partnership aims to offer Brazilian travelers a seamless way to book activities in their native language, with local payment methods and customer support. This aligns with broader industry efforts to localize the travel experience, as seen in recent moves by Traveloka to drive destination interest through targeted campaigns.
Andrés Spitzer, CEO of Civitatis, emphasized the importance of the region: “Latin America is a strategic market for us, and partnering with a giant such as Despegar is key to our growth ambitions.” Iván Lovisolo, VP Global Partners at Despegar, added: “Through this partnership with Civitatis, we are strengthening our value proposition and taking another step forward in our mission to accompany travellers at every stage of their journey.”
The integration will be powered by API connectivity, allowing real-time availability and pricing for thousands of activities. Both companies have committed to ongoing technological and commercial development to ensure a smooth user experience. This type of deep tech integration is becoming increasingly common as OTAs look to differentiate their offerings. For example, Sabre’s deployment of agentic AI with Linex Travel highlights how travel technology vendors are investing in intelligent, scalable solutions.
The partnership also reflects a broader shift in the travel industry toward end-to-end trip planning. Travelers increasingly expect to book flights, hotels, and activities in a single transaction, and OTAs that fail to offer this risk losing share to more comprehensive platforms. Despegar’s move to integrate Civitatis’s catalog positions it to compete more effectively with global players like Booking.com and Expedia, which have long offered activities through their own partnerships.
For travel agents and tour operators, the deal signals that the distribution of tours and activities is consolidating. Smaller local operators may find it harder to maintain direct relationships with travelers as large OTAs become the primary booking channel. However, those who partner with platforms like Civitatis can gain access to a much larger customer base without investing in their own technology.
The partnership also has implications for the MICE segment. Corporate travel planners and event organizers often need to book group activities for incentive trips and conferences. By integrating Civitatis’s catalog, Despegar can offer a more complete solution for business travelers, potentially increasing its share of the corporate travel market.
Both companies are expected to roll out the integration in phases, starting with key destinations in Latin America and expanding to Europe and other regions. The partnership underscores a broader trend of vertical integration in travel distribution, where OTAs are moving beyond commoditized products like flights and hotels to offer higher-margin, experience-based inventory.
As the travel industry continues to recover and evolve, partnerships like this one between Despegar and Civitatis are likely to become more common. Travel technology companies that can offer a seamless, localized, and comprehensive booking experience will be best positioned to capture the growing demand for packaged travel.
