ITB 2019: More than 113,000 visitors attend trade show. Ian Taylor reports from Berlin
Joussen hails Tui shift to an ‘asset operating model’
Investors wanted the Tui Group broken up when chief executive Fritz Joussen took over in 2013, oussen confirmed last wee.
Instead, Joussen set out to
transform the group from “a trading company” to an asset- operating business making most of its profits from hotels and cruises. The Tui boss hailed the
transformation since but said he would have moved faster if he had the time again.
Speaking at German travel
trade show ITB in Berlin, Joussen said: “We were a very traditional business, a trading company, like a tour operator. Investors were saying the company should be broken up. When I came in, it was the preferred course of the more-activist investors. A transformation was needed. “Our [tour operator] markets
and airlines are now less than 30% of our business profits. We
“In five years, Tui will be a digital platform company more than an integrated tourism company”
have transformed from a trading company to a business investing in, marketing and operating assets.” He said: “Operating assets is
nice where you have more demand than supply, so that is where we invest [in hotels and cruises] and there the internet is not a disrupter, it is just a sales channel. “We operate 380 properties,
mainly as assets. We run 100 million bednights, 20 million airline seats. We have 150 aircraft and 16 cruise ships, and €5 billion of ‘risk’ with other companies. We call it a vertically integrated tourism business.”
JOUSSEN: ‘We operate 380 properties, mainly as assets’
However, Joussen said: “Maybe
I was too risk averse. We kept the [local] markets separate. “Now we put them all in one.
Until recently we had IT and budgets organised by country.” He added: “Five years from
now, Tui will be a digital platform company maybe more than an integrated tourism company.” Asked how Tui seeks to appeal to
younger adults, Joussen said: “The sweet spot for our brand is not the young customer, it is 35-plus – and the sweet spot for growth is 65-plus. These people have the money and they travel more.”
Airbnb ‘would find it hard’ to expand into flight bookings
Airbnb has “no plans” to launch an airline despite recruiting aviation industry veteran Fred Reid as global head of transportation in February. Greg Greeley, president
of Airbnb Homes, said the accommodation platform plans to develop “across all transportation”, but he insisted: “We’re not going to launch an airline.” Reid is a former chief executive
of Virgin America and ex-president of Delta Air Lines. But Expedia chief executive Mark
Okerstrom suggested Airbnb would find it hard to move beyond accom- modation to offer airline bookings. He said: “It’s very hard to take a brand into other lines of business, and the technical challenge of the airline business is huge.”
OKERSTROM: ‘Very hard to take a brand into other lines of business’
‘Consumers can be confident their data is safely stored’
Industry leaders insist consumers can have confidence in how their data is stored despite growing concern about cybersecurity. However, Sabre Hospitality Solutions president Clinton Anderson said the data breach revealed at the travel technology firm in 2017 was “a day of waken- ing”. Sabre’s SynXis hotel reserva- tions system suffered a breach which saw unauthorised access to customers’ credit card details. Speaking at ITB, Anderson said:
stored. Ultimately, we’ll see signifi- cant consumer confidence in this.” Google was fined 50 million by
the French data protection agency in January for breaching General Data Protection Regulation rules. The agency found Google
BEHRENDT: ‘We do not necessarily agree with the [GDPR] violation’
“These problems are not going away. Cyber threats are increasing.” But he insisted: “Data is safely
failed to provide transparent information on “data-processing purposes, data storage periods or categories of personal data used for ads personalisation”. However, Google Deutschland
travel industry leader Lutz Behrendt
said: “We do not necessarily agree with the violation [ruling].” He argued: “There is a lot of uncertainty in the industry about how data is handled.” Anderson argued users
welcome use of their personal data, saying: “60% of customers say they are willing to pay more if they get a customised offer.” Chris Silcock, Hilton chief commercial officer, added: “Customers get frustrated if they know you have data you’re not using.”
14 March 2019
travelweekly.co.uk79
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 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
