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.
