COLLAPSE
THOMAS COOK
Sharm el-Sheikh urged to launch ad campaign
Juliet Dennis
A campaign to promote Sharm el-Sheikh must launch within weeks to capitalise on customers starting to receive refunds for lost Tomas Cook holidays, says Red Sea Holidays boss Peter Kearns. He cited a lack of public awareness
about the flight ban being liſted as the “biggest obstacle” to booking the Egyptian resort, and said the news had been “drowned out” by Brexit. Executive director Kearns urged
Egypt’s tourist office to launch a UK campaign quickly, saying now was the perfect time to promote Sharm, which has been off sale for four years. He said “bookings have been
going well” and prior to the FCO’s advice change, the operator received calls from up to 20 clients a week to find out when it would go back on sale. “Cook refunds will start coming
through in a few weeks’ time,” he said. “We need a campaign to say Egypt is safe and it needs to be shouted from the rooſtops. “[Prior to 2015] there was
a gigantic market to Sharm and the tourist office has a fantastic opportunity to get this back, especially as it is outside the eurozone.”
We need a campaign
to say Egypt is safe and it needs to be shouted from the rooftops
Amr El Ezabi, UK and Ireland
director of the Egyptian State Tourist Office, said a “proper campaign” was not expected until January, but joint advertising with operators would start before Christmas. El Ezabi said the campaign would need to educate a “new generation”
Sharm el-Sheikh
of agents. “Te young guys who have only worked in the industry for five years may have never sold Sharm,” he added. Red Sea Holidays is poised to
run a joint campaign once funding is signed off by the tourist board and has already ramped-up digital advertising. Tis week it put a second weekly flight to Sharm on sale. It now has flights out of Birmingham from December 19 as well as Gatwick from December 22. Olympic Holidays and Tui
have pledged a return to Sharm but have yet to confirm flights.
Hays reopens more than 400 former Thomas Cook shops
Hays Travel has opened more than 400 of the 555 former Tomas Cook shops. Te agency confirmed that as of
Tuesday lunchtime (October 29), 404 ex-Cook branches had been reopened as Hays Travel. More than 2,000 former Tomas
Cook staff have been employed so far by Hays Travel. Hays acquired the leases
for Tomas Cook’s entire retail estate in the wake of the travel giant’s failure last month. Last week, the government’s
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commitee heard the independent agency paid £6 million for the leases. Hays Travel said the former
Cook branches had generated more than £1 million in sales of Cook’s former rival Jet2holidays in their first few days since reopening.
John and Irene Hays
Fontenla-Novoa ‘has regrets’ but ‘did not contribute’ to Cook’s failure
Former Tomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa has denied his decisions contributed to the firm’s collapse. Fontenla-Novoa told MPs he got
“major decisions”, such as the 2007 merger with MyTravel, “right”. Appearing before the Business,
6 31 OCTOBER 2019
Energy and Industrial Strategy commitee last week, he said: “Of course I regret things…but I genuinely believe the merger was the right decision.” Asked if he took any responsibility for Cook’s collapse, Fontenla-Novoa, who was paid £12.8 million plus bonuses
between 2007 and 2011, said: “I don’t think decisions I made contributed to its collapse.” His successor Harriet Green
told the commitee she regreted not being able to complete Cook’s transformation in her 28 months in charge. She said she should have
recruited a board that “understood how to change the business model” and made the business less “asset- heavy”. She introduced “Apple- type” stores, which she should have “pushed harder and faster”, she said. She blamed the failure on Cook’s slowness to develop a digital strategy.
travelweekly.co.uk
PICTURE: Shutterstock
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