NEWS ROUND-UP NEWS IN BRIEF
Fundraising for Kenwood Travel agent reaches £44k
Nearly £44,000 has been raised for a travel agent who was severely injured in a road accident in Thailand along with her partner. A GoFundMe campaign for London-based Kenwood Travel’s Abbie Sontag, 28, had almost reached its revised £45,000 target as Travel Weekly went to press. Partner Pete Brudenell, Kenwood’s head of marketing, who was also injured, has since been discharged.
Ex-Lowcost boss Evans is running a Scottish hotel
The former boss of collapsed Lowcost Holidays is reported to have re-emerged running a country-house hotel in Scotland. Paul Evans acquired Torrs Warren in Dumfries & Galloway on the Scottish Borders less than two years after the travel business collapsed with debts of £25 million, according to The Scottish Sun. › Talk Back, page 19
Silversea signs €320m deal to build Silver Dawn
Silversea Cruises has placed a €320 million order with the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy to build its 11th luxury vessel. Silver Dawn, due for delivery in 2021, will be a sister ship to Silver Muse, which launched in April 2017. Silversea already has another ship, Silver Moon, on order for delivery by 2020.
Holiday Extras in £30m management buyout
Holiday Extras has completed a management buyout which values the company at close to £100 million and places 55% of its equity in an employee benefit trust. NatWest bank funded 50% of the £30 million transaction, with the remainder covered by medium-term shareholder borrowing.
COMMENT: “How we react dictates whether we create a social media phenomenon or a lesson in empathy” Giles Hawke, page 30
Tui cuts winter losses and says summer ‘very good’
Ian Taylor
ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk
Tui reported “very good half-year” results for the six months to March last week.
The group cut its winter
operating losses by 31% year on year from €230 million to €159 million as turnover grew 7.2% to €6.81 billion “driven by continued strong demand for our holiday experiences”. Group chief executive Fritz
Joussen said five percentage points of the increased turnover was “related to more customers”, insisting: “Our consumer brand is more relevant to more customers.” He noted a “very good trading
performance for summer 2018”, with “particularly strong growth in bookings for Turkey, North Africa and Greece”, but added: “Demand for Spain remains strong.” Trading in the group’s northern
region, which includes the UK, also remained “very strong”, he said. Joussen hailed the success of the
UK rebrand from Thomson to Tui, saying: “We are at levels where
Andy Washington and Steve Barrass to leave dnata Travel
Senior dnata Travel bosses Andy Washington and Steve Barrass are leaving the business. Their departures were
announced this week following the recent announcement that Travel Republic managing director Ian Simmonds will be leaving at the end of this month. Washington, chief executive of dnata Travel’s consumer-facing
8
travelweekly.co.uk 17 May 2018 LEAVING: Washington and Barrass
brands in Europe, including Travel Republic, is leaving “for personal reasons”. Barrass, dnata senior vice-
JOUSSEN: ‘Compared to Thomson, Tui is now a 10-year younger brand’
Thomson was before the rebrand [in October 2017]. We used the opportunity to reposition the brand as younger, more direct, more digital. The effects are very positive. Compared to Thomson, Tui is now a 10-year younger brand.” He added: “It is also a benefit for us. It is easier to hire young digital people into a global brand than a local brand.” Tui confirmed it would order a
seventh new ship for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises for delivery in 2021, with Joussen reporting cruises had become “increasingly popular among families and young people”.
The group repeated its forecast of
10% growth in underlying operating profit for the full year to September, with Joussen noting Tui’s first- half results “have been improving strongly since full year 2015”. Thomas Cook was due to report
half-year results on Thursday, with analysts forecasting positive figures amid “recovery in key destinations”
Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia. n Tui has appointed Helen Caron as hotel purchasing director for Tui Group. Her successor as cruise and distribution director will be confirmed shortly.
president for new ventures (Europe), is leaving to “pursue other interests”, and will depart on July 31. John Bevan, dnata Travel
Europe B2B chief executive, who joined the company at the end of 2017, will assume Washington’s responsibilities on an interim basis. Bevan has B2C experience running
lastminute.com. Mark Lawton, finance director
B2C dnata Travel Europe since 2015, is also leaving the company and is understood to be on gardening leave.
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