As part of its effort to expand the car-rental offerings on its suite of online travel booking Web sites, Travel Holdings Inc., has hired Peter Rasmussen to the position of vice president, Car Rental Division. Rasmussen will lead the company’s efforts to forge relationships with new rental-car agencies and expand the offerings available through the relationships that currently exist. Global car-rental agreements are essential to this new focus, as Tourico Holidays, a Travel Holdings company, provides global travel inventory to clients in more than 100 countries.

“The goal of this initiative is to provide even better options in rental cars for our customers,” said Asi Ginio, executive vice president of Global Product Development. “About 20 percent of people who book hotels online also book rental cars, so this is a key opportunity for us. The hiring of Peter Rasmussen is a major step in the process of giving our customers more of what they want and helping us continue to build our business.”

Rasmussen has almost 30 years experience in the travel industry, having held senior management positions in both Europe and the U.S. Prior to joining Travel Holdings, Rasmussen was general manager for Travel Counsellors LLC. Rasmussen is actively involved in the travel industry community through numerous speaking engagements and involvement with various groups, boards and committees. A Danish citizen, born and raised in Copenhagen, Rassmussen has lived in the U.S. since 1990 and resides with his wife in New Jersey.