[IMG=22080-7912]On January 24th Kuzey Alexander Esener, Press Secretary of the German tour operating company TUI AG, gave comments to BANKO Information Service regarding the changes that occurred in the company before New Year. We remind you that in September 2006 several changes were adopted within the company’s structure. In December 2006 the travel market giant announced series of innovations mainly aimed at minimization of expenses. Thus, TUI plans to merge together two airline companies TUI – Hapagfly (a charter airline) and HLX (low-cоst) under the new company name Tuifly.com. Moreover, the tour operator has launched the cost reduction program that is expected to save 250,000,000 Euros by 2008. In particular, the program suggests personnel reduction in various affiliating companies and TUI offices. According to the press release published on TUI Internet site the staff of the company will be reduced by 3,600 employees, 2,600 of them – in Great Britain. The above measures were taken in order to survive “in conditions of the constantly changing market and the increased competition”, the press release says. Meanwhile, if the current changes turn out to be a success the company will allocate 3300 new jobs next year. Furthermore, TUI intends to actively develop the Internet sales system.
Kuzey Esener stated as follows: “the travel industry is developing tremendously. For example, at the moment a number of Internet bookings considerably exceeds a number of traditional off-line bookings. Therefore, on the one hand, a role of travel agents is not that important anymore, that is especially evident in Great Britain, where Internet is the main distribution channel. On the other hand, information volume in the Internet will soon disorientate clients and they will need professional off-line help that will again bring importance to the travel agents’ role’. According to Kuzey Esener, the British market suffers the most troubles adapting to the current changes. Meanwhile, British market players comment on the situation from the philosophical point of view. Thus, Nick Laing, Head of Steppes Travel, observed that “the current transformations in the industry will not considerably affect travel agents that work separately and cooperate with many tour operators, while they will be negative for retailers that like TUI offices work with one tour operator. They know they are losing to Internet booking systems, therefore, they prefer to close their offices’.
