Thomas Cook Group has signed a joint venture deal with a Swiss-based hotel property development company to accelerate the growth of its own-brand hotels.
The 50/50 partnership with LMEY will consist of five seed hotel assets worth around £150 million.
Under the deal, two existing Thomas Cook hotels – the family-friendly Sunwing Kallithea in Rhodes and the well-established Sunwing Makrigialos in Crete – will join two existing Aldiana-branded hotels contributed by LMEY in Spain – one in Andalucia and the other in Alcadesia.
Casa Cook RhodesThe joint venture will also see the development of a Casa Cook hotel in Ibiza.
Opening in summer 2019, it will be the fifth hotel under the boutique lifestyle brand and the first in Spain.
The project involves the transformation an existing property and an adjacent plot of land into a 200-room hotel in the bay of Cala Gracio, a short distance from San Antonio.
Ingo Burmester, Thomas Cook chief hotels officer, said: "The new hotel fund has been an objective for some time. We are now able to accelerate our plan to acquire established properties in popular destinations for us to transform into own-brand hotels.
"We are in discussions with several hoteliers across the Mediterranean and envisage announcing further projects over the coming months."
