p19 ITT 16/6/09 17:42 Page 19
ttglive.com
conference report news
ITT • June 8-10 • Dubai
y
uthorit
ourist A
yptian T
Eg
Tomb of Ramses II in Luxor: Cosmos has increased capacity to Egypt this summer
BOOKINGS.
Cosmos claims sales revival
COSMOS claimed it had turned around daily from Gatwick. Morgan added: “It
a trading position which saw it lagging was tough in April and May but volumes
behind the market pre-Christmas. are up. We are filling planes and we
As the busy lates period looms, the are getting the load factors.
operator estimated it was about “Everybody would like better yields,
3%-4% ahead of the market thanks to obviously, but our cost base has been
a recent pick-up in volumes, a switch attacked very hard so we just have to
of capacity to Egypt and Turkey, and keep cutting accordingly.”
currency hedging. Morgan said having a diverse product
With bookings for the key destina- range was a positive, with bed bank
tion of Spain down by 15-20%, Hugh
Somewhere2stay.com “faring well”.
Morgan, Cosmos’s overseas purchasing He said this was partly due to cur-
and operations director, claimed the rency hedging ensuring the operator
operator was faring better than that. was benefiting from a better exchange
Overall, Cosmos was 5-6% down, he rate than the ¤1.05 rate many com-
said, compared with an 11% downturn petitors were working off.
in the market as a whole. Morgan said Thomas Cook had gone
Cosmos’s Egypt business is double out aggressively earlier in the year
that of last year and Turkey is also “dumping” peak summer holidays and
performing well, with Cosmos partner leaving it with nothing left to sell, in
airline Monarch flying to the country contrast to First Choice.
LIABILITY.
Holiday Team tests hotel booking engine
THE HOLIDAY Team is in the final it grow by an average of 8-10% each
stages of testing a new hotel-only month in the first half of this year.
booking engine for agents and a He said many major agents were
white-label service. now buying from the company. Advan-
The Southall Travel-owned consol- tage recently agreed a preferred
idator is testing both systems ahead supplier deal with The Holiday Team.
of a planned launch late next month. Last month, former Travel 2 boss
Sales director Rajan Sawhney said Maria Whiteman left The Holiday
feedback from a major agent who is Team where she had been working as
testing the white-label service had a consultant.
been very positive. Sawhney said, however, that aware-
“It’s a neat and tidy product and the ness of The Holiday Team in the trade
search engine is very fast,” he said. was growing.
Sawhney claimed The Holiday Team’s
aggressive expansion plans had seen ■ Consolidators’ agent drive, p40
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