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Thomas Cook ready to move on from ‘torrid’ time
Thomas Cook is ready to move on from a ‘torrid’ four years with its new senior management team now in place.
Speaking to the media at the ABTA Travel Convention this week, newly-appointed UK managing director Chris Mottershead said the business is now ready to look forward and October 2015 is the ‘start of the next chapter’.
Recent years have seen the travel giant suffer financial troubles, major cuts to its workforce and operations, and more recently a backlash over the way it handled the deaths of Bobby and Christi Shepherd from carbon monoxide poisoning on a Thomas Cook holiday in Corfu.
"Since 2011 it’s been torrid time but we can see the green shoots now," said Mottershead.
"We need to bring back the positivity to the business."
Mottershead said when he joined Thomas Cook in April this year he didn’t want to be working for a company that is ‘reducing and declining’.
Instead, he said he would be looking for opportunities to grow and develop the business.
"We’ve got an amazing brand which is celebrating its 175th anniversary next year and is still so strong," he said.
He said while Thomas Cook was fully embracing technology, it would not forget its heritage and its roots and the benefit of having long-serving staff.
"Retail is the most powerful asset we have and I actively believe in high street retail," he added.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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