Tui to target ‘next generation travellers’ with First Choice brand overhaul
Pippa JacksTui is poised to relaunch its First Choice brand as a youth-focused dynamic package operator for "the picky traveller" – but agents won’t be invited to the party in the first instance.
The revamped First Choice will offer a wider range of product including camping, hostels, apartments and rail travel in a bid to appeal to digitally-savvy travellers who want flexibility but also financial protection.
A “Weather Guarantee” option, whereby customers will get a pro rata refund if it rains for more than two hours a day (in certain destinations), is also new.
First Choice managing director Bart Quinton Smith said Tui’s new vision for the brand came in response to “fundamental changes” in what next-generation travellers are looking for.
“They travel frequently, they’re digitally-minded, they understand packages, but they don’t always gravitate towards [them] – and a package doesn’t always reflect the flexibility they want,” he explained, adding customers in this market are connect by “ethos” more than by age.
In its new guise, First Choice will be an online-only, direct-sell brand, and not even agents in Tui’s own stores will be able to sell it. “Typically, this is not the type of consumer who will go in-store,” said Quinton Smith.
There will no reps in-resort, and the majority of customers are expected to book without contacting the call centre.
Between 2012 and 2019, the First Choice brand sold only all-inclusive holidays, but over the last four years, it has sold a range of board options and holiday durations, with a focus on value.
Tui UK and Ireland managing director Andrew Flintham admitted the First Choice brand had been “on the back burner” during Covid, but said that as one of travel’s former “big four”, the brand still had huge value, and was still recognised by half of the UK’s population.
“First Choice has that feeling of being a pioneer brand; it was the first UK airline to acquire Dreamliners,” Flintham pointed out.
“There were massive pirate ships in First Choice’s shops and those outlandish pink uniforms that everyone remembers,” he added.
SuperSurveyThe famous pink colour has been retained, but slightly softened, and will feature heavily in consumer advertising creative which launches next week.
First Choice’s new portfolio will feature a variety of airline partners, plus campsite and hostel product from Hotelbeds, rail packages in partnership with Byway, and hand-picked experiences from Tui’s Musement collection.
Thousands more hotels from two- to five-star will also be added, meaning the operator will feature 200 destinations in 60 countries, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South-East Asia and Central America.
Sustainability will be a focus, with carbon emissions to be displayed alongside flight options, using Google Flight’s carbon calculations devised with partner Travalyst.
Rather than carrying over Tui’s Green & Fair hotel labelling, First Choice will label hotels according to six categories of “considered choice”, such as hotels that offer vegan menus.
“It’s about letting customers choose what’s important to them,” Quinton Smith explained.
Quinton Smith, who became managing director of First Choice in September 2022, is an alumnus of the TTG 30 Under 30, and has recruited four other 30 Under 30 alumni from within Tui to form his new team.
It’s a question that has long had many travel bosses scratching their heads: just what is it that the next generation of travellers want? And how to stretch an existing brand with a traditional customer base to both appeal to, and offer relevant product to, that emerging generation?
Launching a separate B2C brand to reach next-gen customers has not always worked (whatever happened to Kuoni’s Meraki?). But Tui’s approach here – pivoting a strong, if somewhat dormant, brand as opposed to building one from scratch – seems a sensible one.
There is, however, significant brand stretching to be achieved; First Choice’s identity as “the home of all-inclusive” will persist for many consumers, and the fact that all-inclusive and traditional hotel product will still very much be available, alongside the sexy new stuff, might hinder that stretching.
Travel agents excited by Tui’s recent return to working with independents might be frustrated to be excluded from First Choice’s new product portfolio. But big boss Andrew Flintham told me at the brand’s intimate launch event last week that there will be a certain element of “seeing what sells” for First Choice – and if products such as the Byway Travel partnership are successful, such products might move across to Tui too.
It is somewhat ironic that First Choice’s research showed that 40% of consumers in its target market are overwhelmed by anxiety when making travel choices, and spend 72 hours planning holidays per year. Rather a shame then that these customers are resolved not to talk to their local travel agent… who could fix those pain points in a flash!
Pippa Jacks
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