Travel chiefs defend package holidays
The bosses of the UK’s two largest travel groups made a robust defence of the package holiday at today’s ABTA Travel Convention.
TUI Travel chief executive Peter Long and Thomas Cook Group CEO Manny Fontenla-Novoa kicked off the convention in Tenerife by refuting the claim by moderator Jeremy Vine that they were part of a dwindling market.
“An awful lot of people want the security of a package and what we need to do is offer more ways for them to do it,” said Long.
“People want to book online and the huge growth of low cost flights means that they can book different durations and we need to move away from seven and 14 night holidays and capture that independent growth.”
Fontenla-Novoa said: “I’m not wedded to seven and 14 night holidays but I am wedded to providing customers with great value. If you do the package well, you can make more money on that than any other sector.”
Fontenla-Novoa said Thomas Cook would not try to fool people they were an independent operator by taking their name off some specialist brands. “People want range, income and expertise and that’s what we can offer.”
Long said there were significant differences between the new TUI and Thomas Cook companies. “Of course there is common ground because we are both in the mainstream, but we have a big portfolio of specialist businesses which makes us unique.”
Long defended the big group’s multi-channel distribution strategy saying that not all holidaymakers were seasoned travellers who were confident about booking online.
“An awful lot of our customers only travel once a year and are paranoid about anything going wrong,” he said.
The message to the travel trade is: “If you are adding value you are very important,” he added.
He also disputed suggestions that consolidation would lead to higher holiday prices.
“We are not looking to put prices up – our customers are too savvy for that. It will not happen,” Long said.
Long insisted the TUI had the right ingredients to ensure a long-term future in the business in the face of competition from low cost carriers and online travel brands, not least through access to exclusive hotel stock.
by Phil Davies and Jeremy Skidmore
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