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The new package
WTM 2004 Special: Holidaymakers that dynamically package will be going on the same holiday as they would have done if they’d bought a pre-packaged break – it will just take longer to book, according to TUI chief executive for Northern Europe, Peter Rothwell.
Speaking at the Captains of Industry lunch on the first day of World Travel Market, Mr Rothwell said: “I think it is a reasonable point to make that it is time to look away from package holidays to offer something else.
“The package of the 1970s that offered a seven or 14 night stay and 42 meals for the price of a plane ticket was trendy and good value for money at the time.”
But he said that although the package holiday is likely to decline from the five to five and a half billion currently sold annually, it had not died.
“It will be replaced by dynamic packaging, which will continue to grow as technology improves and as people’s confidence grows.
“It will also get harder to distinguish between the package holiday and the packaged holiday that people have put together themselves.
“Because I think people will end up booking the same sort of holiday as they would if they bought the package, they’ll just spend longer on the internet doing it and feel like they’ve done something trendy by putting it together themselves.”
He added that despite this point, TUI was embracing new technology by concentrating its efforts on launching a “potent portal”.
Following a comment from First Choice chief executive Peter Long, that his company was retreating from the shorthaul market, Mr Rothwell said: “We will not be pulling out of the shorthaul market – it is like asking Ford if it is going out of cars.”
He said TUI would be facing up to competition from low cost airlines on shorthaul breaks by reducing costs, through the redundancies and relocation of the TUI headquarters, and through concentrating its marketing spend on a single brand (see other story).
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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