Following the sale of its Asia Pacific division back to founder and chairman Ralph Bartel late last year, the deal-publisher and media company Travelzoo is ready to expand its wings in the region.

There will be no new launches however; growth will come from leveraging and building upon its five assets in the region, said Brad Gurrie (right), General Manager, Australia and Southeast Asia for Travelzoo.

"We now have more than 2.8 million subscribers across Asia Pacific and will shortly announce three million subscribers. We anticipate this growth will continue throughout next year."

Last October, Travelzoo's Asia-Pacific division, including Travelzoo Hong Kong, Travelzoo Japan, Travelzoo China, Travelzoo Taiwan and Travelzoo Australia, passed into the private hands of Ralph, the brother of Travelzoo's CEO Holger.

The privatization was prompted by weak revenues in the Asia Pacific division – for the 12 months ended June 30, 2009, Travelzoo's Asia Pacific division reported revenues of approximately US$1.5 million with an operating loss of US$7.8 million.

Back in August 2009, Holger Bartel said, "While we remain upbeat about business prospects in Asia Pacific, we believe we can currently create more shareholder value by redirecting and focusing our investments in other areas of the Travelzoo franchise where we see more compelling near-term growth opportunities, such as in Europe, North America, and our new Fly.com search engine. Consequently, we intend to sell our Asia Pacific division."

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