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Thomas Cook aims for top 3 online slot
Thomas Cook aims be amongst the top three online travel sites by the end of next year.
The prediction came from UK & Ireland CEO Manny Fontenla-Novoa as he revealed that Thomas Cook was now the fifth most visited travel site in the UK.
Speaking on the back of forecasts that the division will beat last year’s record profit of £51 million, as reported by TravelMole, he said the UK & Ireland business was close to achieving 5% profit margins.
He attributed the improved performance to a combination of cost cuts, a changed destination profile and different product mix.
The division has reduced capacity to Spain by 10% and taken out 400 mainly self-catering properties while placing more emphasis on destinations such as Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus where quality has improved but prices are better.
He estimated that 500,000 holidays had been cut industry-wide for this summer to bring supply far closer to levels of demand.
Fontenla-Novoa gave a robust defence of the package holiday while revealing that average holiday prices were up 11% and the Thomas Cook retail network was performing 10% better than this time last year. He described agencies as still being the dominant distribution channel for early bookings and high value holidays.
He said: “This year we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first package holiday – all those years later there is still huge demand. All those who predicted the demise of the package holiday have got it wrong.”
But he admitted the “mix and feel” of the company’s 600 travel agencies would be different in three to five years time, saying there was “still some way to go” in improving results in high street travel retailing.
Looking ahead to early sales for summer 2006, which went on sale only in May, Fontenla-Novoa estimated a market up 12% with 220,000 holiday sold.
Report by Phil Davies
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