News 20.08.15 IN BRIEF
RESTRUCTURE
■EARLY 2016 RETURN TO TUNISIA Thomas Cook has said it is aiming to restart flights and holidays to Tunisia on February 14, 2016. The tour operator cancelled its programme for the rest of the summer in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in the country at the end of June. It has now extended this to February 13, 2016.
■CELEBRITY SALES APPOINTMENT Celebrity Cruises has appointed Sarah Harraghy to the newly created role of commercial sales director, UK and Ireland, following the recent departure of director of sales Nicki Tempest-Mitchell. Harraghy will join in October.
■NEW LONGEST FLIGHT RECORD Emirates will hold the record for the world’s longest non-stop flight when it begins flying from its Dubai base to Panama City next year. The service will take 17 hours 35 minutes (flying west) beating the record holder: Qantas’s flight between Sydney and Dallas.
■TRAVEL COUNSELLORS TO MOVE Travel Counsellors is to move its head office from Bolton to Manchester. The homeworking firm will relocate to an office building in Trafford Quays by the end of the year.
STORE OPENING
Latin Routes gets in the groove to celebrate high street move
FAST-GROWING TOUR operator Latin Routes is celebrating after opening its first high street store. The company, which recently
brought in industry veteran John McEwan as chairman, decided to look for a new place after outgrowing its previous premises. “We have clients come to see us,
so we have put in a boardroom now so we can provide on-site training, as well as see clients in the store, as we have a dedicated shop desk,” said
04 20.08.2015
First Choice future still unclear as Tui embarks on rebranding process
Patrick Whyte
THE FATE of the First Choice brand remains up in the air, after Tui Group’s joint chief executive
confirmed the company was still undecided about its future. Speaking after the company’s
third-quarter results, Peter Long said the plan remained for the Tui name to be gradually rolled out, with the aim of creating one master brand across the business. “We’ve started in our Dutch business
so it’s going well and the programme’s on track. This is an exciting development and as we roll out by source market there will be a lot of learnings,” he said. “But we see it very, very positively.
Building a global brand is absolutely the right thing for us to do and we’re committed to it.” Tui revealed its plans to rebrand
earlier this year. Last week Long confirmed that the Thomson name would eventually disappear, but that the fate of First Choice
Thomson and First Choice merged in 2007
remained undecided. “We haven’t made a decision yet in terms of First Choice, but we did in respect of Thomson,” he said. Thomson (then owned by Tui)
and First Choice came together in a merger in 2007. In 2011, Tui Travel, as it was then
known, announced it would be rebranding all its stores as “Thomson featuring First Choice”. Long had served as chief executive
of First Choice prior to the merger. Meanwhile, Tui is reportedly
considering spinning off some of its non-core assets. Speculation about the future of
Martin Johnson, director and co-founder at the company. He added that the company had
enjoyed a successful year, having taken on some outside investment and increased staff numbers, with plans to have a total of six employees by September. “We’re also in the process of
relaunching our website. The new platform’s going to allow us to create a whole new agent area,” he added. To celebrate the move, Latin
Routes held a party for industry partners, including both suppliers and agents. Both directors of Latin Routes
The Latin Routes senior team
are former members of TTG’s Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders.
its accommodation and specialist divisions, which include brands such as Crystal Ski and Hotelbeds, has persisted since Tui Travel and Tui AG merged last year. The Timessuggested that the
current head of the non-mainstream businesses, Will Waggott, had been tipped to lead a management buyout of the business, with several private equity firms thought to be interested. “Our statement from May 2015
[Capital Markets Day] has not changed. We are evaluating all options for Hotelbeds to maximise growth and value. This includes also the option of keeping the entity in the group. No decisions have been made,” a spokesperson told TTG. “Crystal Ski belongs to the Specialist Group. The unit is managed independently for growth and value maximisation. “In addition, there is a stronger
link between Crystal and the tourism segment, [for example] in terms of utilising flight capacities.”
■Tui counts the cost of Tunisia, p14
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68