Articles tagged “thomas cook”

With Thomas Cook out of the way, there's certainly more space in the package holiday market. People still want to buy these types of holidays, and EasyJet is a well-known brand. Can it be successful where other low-cost carriers have failed?

European tourism may, broadly speaking, be in growth mode. But there is still plenty of cause for guarded optimism, particularly when it comes to Germany and the UK.

What are the chances that Lufthansa ends up owning at least parts of Alitalia and Condor? It doesn't seem enthusiastic about either, but it might be better than letting a competitor get hold of them — as long as regulators agree.

Given Fosun's desire to help keep Thomas Cook afloat, the news shouldn't come as a surprise, especially since the Chinese company's Foliday ecosystem features the storied brand name.

Even though Thomas Cook Group is no longer around, parts of the company live on. The Nordic business was pretty profitable, crucially has strong local brands, and isn't weighed down by an extensive store network. It's easy to see how it can be a success in the future.

It was the appearance everyone was waiting for. The two former Thomas Cook CEOs had very, very different ideas about how to run a travel company. The problem is that the business is no longer around, meaning they are both somewhat tarnished by failure.

Inquiries like these are often pretty brutal on company executives. Former CEO Peter Fankhauser shoulders a lot of responsibility for what went down at Thomas Cook, but he's not the only one at fault. The actions of his predecessors, as well as the UK government itself, are likely to also come under scrutiny.

Since Saudi Arabia introduced a new tourist visa on Sept. 28, the focus has been on what it means for non-Muslim leisure travelers. But the new visa holds a bigger significance for the huge Muslim travel market in Asia and elsewhere.

Given the state of the traditional retail industry, on the surface this appears to be a risky deal. But Hays Travel is a profitable, growing business and will probably have secured the assets at a knockdown price. The company knows better than most how to make shops work.

Package holidays are changing and under pressure, but in markets such as the UK, Germany, China, and Canada, these offline options still have their place. Failure to adapt was a contributing factor in Thomas Cook's demise, but there were a whole bunch of other things going on as well.