Thomas Cook lays on extra IT staff to cope with Christmas rush
Thomas Cook is drafting in extra IT staff over the Christmas period to cope with an expected surge in online bookings.
The operator said its website had 130,000 hits on Christmas Day last year and nearly 300,000 on Boxing Day
This year, it is expecting that figure to be even higher as more of its customers choose to book online.
It is also hoping to boost the number with an exclusively online promotion of £150 off summer 2015 holidays, which starts on Christmas Eve and ends at midnight on Boxing Day.
The discount will be available to customers who book in one of its 33 stores that will be open on Boxing Day.
"We have ensured that we have the right number of people in the right places at the right times to ensure that all areas of our business meet the expected rush as we head into the peaks booking period," said a spokesman.
According to Thomas Cook, the peak time for bookings is 8pm on Christmas Day.
Online bookings now represent more than 38% of all bookings at Thomas Cook Group.
In May, it launched a new website which allows customers to use a browser to sync with tablets and mobile devices and helps them to connect their online searches with in-store bookings and vice versa.
Since then, bookings made on its website have increased by 12% compared to the same period last year, with particularly strong growth in mobile and tablet bookings.
Thomas Cook’s peak season TV advertising campaign launches on Boxing Day.
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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