Thomas Cook holidays are like ‘a decent, but forgettable saloon car’

Thomas Cook blames the heatwave for ‘disappointing year’, but Jon Tipple, chief strategy officer worldwide for FutureBrand, thinks its problems might not just be the weather…

"It seems we can’t go a day without reading about another well-known, historic company taking a nose dive. Now it’s the turn of veteran travel firm Thomas Cook, which issued its second profit warning in two months.

Thomas Cook’s recent poor trading results have been largely attributed to outside factors, in particular the unusually hot summer across Europe, which hit its UK business particularly hard. No one can control or predict the British weather, but there is more the holiday company could do to safeguard its future. Primarily, Thomas Cook must find ways to increase its customer base, especially given global warming. What a terrifyingly fickle business to be in, relying on the weather at a time of increasing global climate change…

Weathering the storm

The good news for Thomas Cook is that the challenges it faces are far closer to home and a lot easier to control than the weather. It’s possible to predict the problems it will face – and to set out the solutions.

The fact is that Thomas Cook is out of sync with the type of holiday experiences people want. It has set an unremarkable ambition. Visit the company’s website, go to the about section and you’ll find this: "We are very proud to serve the 19 million customers who chose to travel with us each year and we are focused on transforming our business so that we can serve even more customers in ways that deliver better their holiday dreams."

But they struggle to live up to this on the ground because of the experiences they offer.

Thomas Cook’s website describes it as the oldest and best-known company in leisure travel, with a history of innovation that goes back to 1841. But sadly, like so many businesses of a certain age, it has become banal. The commoditising effects of mass systemisation and cost efficiency have smoothed out the unexpected, the unique and the truly memorable from the Thomas Cook brand experience. It has come to signify the bog-standard one or two-week escape that fewer and fewer people are prepared to spend their money on.

It’s the travel industry equivalent of manufacturing a perfectly decent, but quickly forgettable saloon car, when all around us the rest of the car industry is dreaming up much more modern and exciting vehicles. Which is more likely to stick in the mind?

A holiday to remember

What Thomas Cook needs to do to make itself memorable, unique and exciting is revamp its purpose. It needs to think deeply about why it exists and what it is it for.

Once it understands this central point it could use these insights to overhaul the type of door-to-door holiday experiences it offers – without compromise. As the owner of both planes and hotels, Thomas Cook is in an enviable position to create an overall experience from the moment people book their holiday to the moment they arrive at their hotel, hopefully somewhere warm and sunny. It’s also perfectly placed to tackle sustainability concerns and – in particular – waste, given its control over multiple touchpoints.

This gives Thomas Cook an in-built competitive advantage – and that’s a great place to start, whatever the weather."
 

Related News Stories: