Reisegiganten AS was established in 2009 as a result of the merger between Restplass AS and Solfaktor AS. Both Solfaktor and Restplass started their operations in 2000, initially as competing online services for searching, comparing, and booking holiday travel from Norway to destinations worldwide.
Restplass quickly established itself as a leading Norwegian OTA (Online Travel Agent), offering distribution of flights and hotels, while also providing last-minute deals from all major charter operators. In the early 2000s,
restplass.no rapidly became one of the most recognized brands in the Norwegian online travel market.
Solfaktor originated from a group of IT entrepreneurs who saw the opportunity to be first in developing a complete search engine (meta-search) for charter and package holidays across the Scandinavian market. With the rise of low-cost airlines in the early 2000s, Solfaktor launched Scandinavia’s first VTO (Virtual Tour Operator) in 2003. This allowed them to aggregate key airlines and connect them with large international hotel databases, enabling the creation of competitive package holidays beyond what traditional charter companies offered.
Together, these two companies had the foundation to become a “giant” in Scandinavian online travel, combining some of the most recognized brands with technology that was years ahead of its competitors.
