Thomas Cook has had a tough time in the recent months, with struggling sales and the announcement of plans to close 200 commercial properties over the next two years. But recent news implies things haven’t got any better for the tour operator.
With a slow start to bookings in January – this is usually the busiest period for travel commercial properties – sales were down 33 per cent in the first two weeks of year. Speaking earlier this year Sam Weihagen, acting Chief Executive, spoke of the tough year; “This has been a very challenging year for the Group.”
Both online and commercial property bookings are still currently 2.0 per cent lower that this time last year. However this figure also incorporates a 17 per cent reduction in the amount of holidays the company has to sell. So if Thomas Cook had the same targets as last year, the 2.0 per cent would be dramatically higher.
Also last year, the company spoke of strategic changes: “We have instigated a turnaround plan in the UK to address our areas of underperformance.
“We continue to take action to substantially strengthen the balance sheet and the Board is undertaking a full strategic review,” Sam stated.
Since then, the company have improved their website to ensure an easy booking process and already online bookings have increased by 19 per cent. Speaking of the boost in bookings, Sam added, “In the last few weeks we have seen an improvement in UK booking trends, helped by our recently launched advertising campaign and upgrades to our thomascook.com website.”
But the company is ready for a tough year’s trading, especially with the Olympics, as people may choose to spend their holiday in Britain this summer to experience the London Games.
“As we stated in our first quarter results, we continue to expect 2011-12 to be a challenging year given the economic backdrop and difficult trading environment, particularly for winter.
“The trends which we saw in the first quarter have continued through the second quarter, but summer trading is more encouraging,” a Thomas Cook statement expressed.
Have you booked a holiday for this summer? Or do you prefer to wait for a last minute bargain?
