Speaking at the The Travel Convention in Costa Navarino, Greece, Nick Longman faced a question from the audience about whether the group would look to alter its process of charging less for holidays booked online – a move that has long irked the trade.
However, Longman insisted: “We’re comfortable at the moment that there’s a difference to the offering provided online with in-store, and our customers are used to paying for a service.
“I think we will likely continue having different prices,” he added.
It came as part of a wider discussion, which examined the group’s decision to drop its various European brands, including Thomson, to bring the different companies under the umbrella label of Tui.
“We are looking to enter a period of phenomenal growth, and having one brand will enable us to do that; it will help to give us consistency [across different countries],” he said.
But Longman conceded: “The UK [Thomson] brand will be the last one to go, and we have to make sure we get it right, because if you get it wrong, it can make it very expensive.”
“We’ll be watching the other countries to make sure they get it right.”
Longman said he also believed the rebrand would give the group wider appeal in the UK than the Thomson brand. “You have to keep evolving,” he added, “you can’t just wait until something goes wrong [to make changes].”
The discussion formed part of a wider debate about how different sectors were expected to evolve in future years.
Andrew Swaffield, Monarch Group chief executive, said he believed the aviation landscape would undergo significant changes, with the charter model set to disappear, apart from flights operated by Tui and Thomas Cook.
“I don’t believe in the charter model, I think it will disappear,” he said. “I think tour operators need to learn how to work with low-cost carriers. There is a cultural gap that needs to be bridged, but we need to encourage that cooperation. I can already see signs of easyJet starting to do it,” he added.
Swaffield also said he believed there were currently “too many airlines in Europe”, and that the sector would see “significant mergers and acquisition activity, as well as consolidation across the aviation space on the continent”.
“Those that don’t will be facing great difficulty,” he added.
