Thomas Cook to launch self-packaging online

Wednesday, 09 Oct, 2003 0

Thomas Cook is to start selling self-packaged city breaks on its website, but says this does not mean the end of selling package holidays online.

Thomas Cook director of multimedia sales, Katherine Gershon told TravelMole that the new online functions would not mean consumers would be ‘packaging their own’ package holidays. She said: “This is not about getting people away from booking package holidays online.

“The dynamic packaging will initially be about people booking city breaks.”

The dynamic package function is being powered by the Online Travel Corporation using its ‘Build Your Own’ technology. Thomas Cook will also be using OTC technology in its call centres. The deal is a licensing contract, so Thomas Cook pays an annual fee to OTC to license the technology.

Ms Gershon said: “The OTC technology allows us to do dynamic packaging, which we couldn’t do before.”

Customers using the Thomas Cook website will have access to published fares through Worldspan as well as net fares from Thomas Cook. OTC sales director, Vic Darvey (pictured) told TravelMole that OTC was looking to add Thomas Cook charter flights in the future. He said the two companies hadn’t discussed yet whether Thomas Cook fares would be listed ahead of other fares in search results.

TravelMole asked Ms Gershon whether the deal would mean consumers could book more product online than they could previously. She said: “We have much bigger buying power than OTC. The only change for consumers is the addition of more hotels.”

The OTC deal means Thomas Cook consumers will have access to the 97,000 hotels listed on All-Hotels.com.

Manny Fontenla Novoa Thomas Cook UK chief executive, Manny Fontenla-Novoa (pictured) announced earlier this year that the website was to undergo a complete relaunch. Mr Darvey told TravelMole he thought it would relaunch in November, but Ms Gershon said Thomas Cook hadn’t decided a launch date yet. She added that when consumers used the website, they wouldn’t be aware which parts were powered by OTC, and which by Thomas Cook.

OTC chief executive, Mark Jones said the deal with Thomas Cook was “a landmark contract” for OTC. According to OTC’s Mr Darvey it is the third major deal signed with a travel company – the other two were the Asia-Pacific travel website zuji.com and priceline.com.