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Travel Counsellors pulls out of the US
Chris Gray. TRAVEL COUNSELLORS has quit the US, four years after making the country its third overseas base. Managing director Steve Byrne said the decision had been taken so that the com- pany could concentrate on faster-growing markets, but said it could return in the medium-term.
Byrne said business in the US was still rising and was 20% up year-on-year, even though the number of counsellors there had dropped from a peak of about 50 to 20. However, the continuing recession in the US, combined with the presence of many rival home- based travel agency ventures — fuelled by a
Flashback: TTG August 26, 2006
deregulated market that made it easier for people to set up as agents — meant progress had been slower than the company hoped. “It was taking longer than we wanted to take off and it made sense that we concen- trated our resources on markets that are growing faster,” said Byrne. Travel Counsellors offered
a different service to most of the US’s other home- based agencies, he said, because it only employed
professionally trained agents. But it had taken longer than expected to make the company stand out from its competitors. Travel Counsellors now operates in Canada,
Steve Byrne: Travel Counsellors will focus on fast-growing markets
Holland, Australia, Ireland and South Africa, as well as the UK. Byrne said every market was showing year-on-
year growth, with the UK 20% up. Overall, the international bases were posting 100% growth, with South Africa up 150% and Australia 140%. Worldwide turnover for the year to the end of
October 2010 was expected to be £320 million, compared with £250 million the previous year. Byrne added that the company was looking at
moving into new markets, including India and more mainland European countries.
Virgin and BA to meet unions
VIRGIN ATLANTIC and British Airways face key meetings with unions next week as they try to avoid a series of strikes this autumn. Virgin, which is facing the first strike in its
26-year history, is scheduled to hold negotiations with pilots’ union Balpa on Monday. The association is in dispute with Virgin over the
way the company is interpreting an agreement on the minimum number of rostered days off. BA is due to meet cabin crew union Unite for
further talks on the long-running dispute over pay and working conditions.
Unite represents 11,000 of BA’s cabin crew and has warned that disciplinary action against some of its members is “seriously complicating” attempts to end the dispute. Tony Woodley, Unite's joint general secretary, has written to members to stress that the union is still “focused” on resolving the dispute through talks organised by conciliation service Acas. A meeting of BA cabin crew is also due to be held
at Kempton Park Racecourse, near Heathrow, on Monday to talk about more walkouts. Staff have already staged 22 days of strikes in 2010.
Tui AG poised to buy rest of Tui Travel
WEEK AT THE SEAS Agents Angie Johnson (left) from Low Cost Cruising, Andrew Meech from Liphook Travel, and Janice Levine, from Solos of Edgware, were counting down to National Cruise Week while onboard MSC Opera. National Cruise Week is organised by the Association of Cruise Experts and runs from September 19-26.
06 03.09.2010
SPECULATION IS growing that Tui AG may launch a bid to buy the rest of Tui Travel’s shares. German tourism group Tui AG currently owns
55% of UK-based Tui Travel and is expected to discuss buying the remaining shareholding at a supervisory board meeting, which will be held in Germany next week. Tui AG has said that it will not commit to any further development of its tourism business until
it sells its remaining 43% stake in container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd. The group had lined up a deal to sell its stake in Hapag-Lloyd in 2008, but it was scuppered by the economic downturn. An improvement in the Hapag-Lloyd business has increased speculation that Tui AG may be able to offload the shipping company and use the money to buy the rest of Tui Travel.
ttglive.com
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