NEWS — DIGEST
“For new entrants to the indusry, the
barrier has been raised substantially” Noel Josephides, page 30
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China’s Fosun International buys 5% stake in Thomas Cook Group
Chinese conglomerate Fosun International has taken a 5% stake in Thomas Cook Group, following swiftly on from its acquisition of Club Med last month. Fosun paid £91.8 million for the stake and will seek to double its holding in Thomas Cook to 10%, it said, in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The two businesses will explore “collaborative opportunities”
between Thomas Cook and other travel and leisure businesses in Fosun’s portfolio. This would include closer co-operation with Club Med, further enhancing the existing strong relationship between the two organisations in France and extending it to other key European markets, according to Cook. The deal also gives Cook access to the fast-growing Chinese tourism market.
Cook denies it is selling its airline
Thomas Cook head of airlines and hotels Christoph Debus has dismissed a recent report that the group discussed selling its airline and defended former chief executive Harriet Green. Referring to a Sunday Times report last month that Cook was looking to offload its airlines through a joint venture or sale, Debus said: “I never talked to the investor mentioned. We are definitely not desperate to sell our airline. There were no talks.” He added: “Harriet asked at the beginning ‘Do we need our airline?’ She realised quickly we have a board able to run an airline successfully.”
Last call for singers in the godmother of all prizes Today (Thursday) is your last chance to become godmother of Royal Caribbean’s new cruise ship, Anthem of the Seas. The competition winner will get to perform a specially selected song at the naming ceremony in Southampton in April and at Travel Weekly’s Agent Achievement Awards in July. For full details of how to enter, visit
travelweekly.co.uk/godmother
Baldwins’ Kim Lacey wins Caribtours’ Barbados trip A Caribtours agent incentive during January and February was won by Kim Lacey of Baldwins Travel. Lacey was awarded the prize, a seven-night stay at The Fairmont Royal Pavilion in Barbados, with return British Airways flights, after making two Caribtours bookings during its winter sale. For the operator’s agent
newsletters, email
joanna. whinney@
caribtours.
co.uk
Get Connecting with new Travel Weekly website
Travel Weekly Group has launched Connecting Travel, an online business network to unite travel professionals across the world. The site is free and offers a global events calendar, forums, news aggregator, recruitment and networking platforms and a data and research library. Launch partners include
the World Travel & Tourism Council, Pacific Asia Travel Association, European Tour Operators’ Association, Cruise Lines International Association, Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the African Travel and Tourism Association. Supporters include The Travel
Corporation, Feefo, Amadeus, Travelport, TripAdvisor, Avis, Gail Kenny Recruitment, Illusions and Traveltek. Travel Weekly Group chairman Clive Jacobs said: “Connecting Travel will become the dedicated platform for industry professionals to communicate seamlessly. It will provide valuable research, communication and marketing tools to allow the industry access to a global audience.”
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❯ Log on now at
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12 March 2015 —
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