Cook aiming to sell more than half of holidays online
Long-awaited details of Thomas Cook’s turnaround strategy, finally revealed by group chief executive Harriet Green this morning, make it clear that she believes the company needs to reduce its dependency on the high street and drive more sales online.
The company, which has the largest travel retail chain in the country, announced that by 2015 it is aiming to increase its web penetration to at least 50% by 2015.
However, the operator still risks lagging a long way behind rival Thomson, which has sold more than 60% of its holidays online since 2007 and ranks as one of the top 10 retailers in the country for internet sales.
Thomas Cook announced last week that it had set up a special 12-man taskforce, drafting in gurus from the digital world, to help drive its online development. Just days later, the company announced that it was closing a further 195 shops along with its Accrington office, leading to the loss of a further 2,500 jobs.
Green said that, in order to turn around the loss-making business, she had come up with a strategy of "simplification, focused on delivering trusted, personalised holiday experiences delivered through a high-tech, high-touch approach".
She said the new strategy had been based on extensive research and analysis including comprehensive, in-depth survey measuring the attitudes and changing needs of almost 18,000 travellers, validated against the experiences of many of Thomas Cook’s own customers.
Green said the strategy will delivery on-going product and service innovation though four main initiatives:
o Expanding proven international hotel concepts
o Creating a new portfolio of flexible, trusted, products and services
o Creating a single, consistent, omni-channel gateway for customers to access personal recommendations from its range of products and services
o All underpinned by an integrated IT platform and the Thomas Cook brand.
At the same time, it will create one group-wide airline segment to cut costs and improve reliability and transform its approach to hotel contracting to make better use of its group purchasing power, which it said was already delivering results.
TravelMole will be meeting with Harriet Green at a special press breakfast tomorrow to discuss her turnaround plan for Thomas Cook. If you have a question you’d like to put forward, please click Post Your Comment below. We can’t promise we’ll be able to ask all of your questions, but we will do our best.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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