This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
p5 dec5 3/12/08 21:24 Page 5
ttglive.com
the co-operative travel news
Co-operative Travel on
Conference
coverage
course for £14m profit
TTG has the most comprehensive coverage
of the 2008 winter conference season.
Lucy Huxley.
budget, which, considering the second half of In this week’s TTG:
THE CO-OPERATIVE Travel is on track to make this year, is a pretty good result.” ■ All the news from Aito’s 2008 overseas
a £14 million profit this year, a significant Greenacre added that despite weakening conference in Marrakech, p10-11
turnaround on the £5 million loss last year after demand, the group would not panic. “We have ■ Exclusive coverage of the Travel Counsellors
the United Co-op and Travelcare divisions merged. tended to hold on to our market share since the conference in Marbella, p12
Mike Greenacre, managing director of the start of the financial problems,” he said. “We are ■ A report from the first ttgluxury conference,
combined group, said he was hopeful of reach- getting our fair share of what is available. p16-17 & p44-45
ing the £14 million target. “But the market has definitely tightened and
But speaking at last weekend’s Freedom Travel January is looking to be tougher than usual.” In next week’s TTG:
Agents’ Consortium conference in Leeds, he Greenacre said worries about unemployment ■ Exclusive coverage of Freedom conference
warned: “That result could be affected by the were having the biggest impact. “Getting people to ■ We report exclusively from the Hays
next eight weeks. There has definitely been a commit to holidays when they don’t know what is Independence Group conference
turnaround in fortune over the past four to six going to happen with their jobs is difficult,” he said. ■ Aviation reporter Chris Gray reports from
weeks, when we have been recording decreases He pointed out that the big two appeared to a Future of Air Transport conference
of about 15% or 20% against last year. be faring well and predicted the industry would ■ All the news from the Travel Trust
“We are going to have a good year compared start to see the “first shoots of recovery” in the Association conference
with the previous year. We will just about hit second half of next year.
Group to unveil ‘full-blown’ tour operation in January
THE CO-OPERATIVE Travel will unveil a new “full- “Questions about access to enough product The operation will have its own brand and
blown” tour operation in January which could will be answered because we are going to be in brochures. The Co-op also plans to do more
make it the UK’s third-largest tour operator. there and reasonably significant in what we do. direct contracting for its Escape DIY system.
Responding to concerns about how the Co-op “We sell nearly three million holidays a year “We need to cut out even more of the
would react if the dominance of Tui Travel and and have a captive audience, which the two middlemen,” added Greenacre.
Thomas Cook created a duopoly, managing direc- vertically integrated guys don’t.” “Do we really want to buy from a Steve
tor Mike Greenacre said: “We fell out with Thom- The Co-op unveiled its intention to launch a Endacott, who has already bought from a Jumbo
son in 2006 because it rescinded on a contract tour operation 15 months ago. Greenacre said dis- Tours, which is buying direct from a hotel?
and cut commission to 7%. We said we would cussions intensified after XL’s failure, and oper- “We need to go direct, especially with the
ensure we were never put in that position again. ating a programme in 2010 was the top priority. volumes we can deliver.”
GREAT EXPECTATIONS:
The great grandson of
Charles Dickens helped
staff open the refur-
bished Co-operative
Travel branch in
Ulverston last week. The
opening coincided with
the start of the town’s
annual Dickensian
Christmas Festival. From
far left: Linda Johnson,
assistant manager at
The Co-operative Travel;
Gerald Dickens; and
Ulverston branch
manager Lisa Barnes
05.12.2008 05
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com