TUI Travel PLC

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TUI Travel PLC

Type	Public
Founded	1973
Headquarters	Crawley, England, UK
Key people	Dr. Michael Frenzel (Chairman) , Sir Michael Hodgkinson (Deputy Chairman), Peter Long (Chief Executive)
Industry	Transport (Holiday Group)
Products	Passenger transport, travel agency, accommodation
Revenue	£12,840 million (2007)
Operating income	£56 million (2007)
Net income	£7 million (2007)
Employees	14,000
Website	www.tuitravelplc.com

TUI Travel PLC is an international leisure travel company, operating in 180 countries and serving 30m customers. It is headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex, England. It was created by a merger of the tourism division of TUI AG, which owns 51% of the company, and First Choice Holidays PLC.

On 4th June 2007 the European Commission gave conditional clearance for the proposed merger to create TUI Travel PLC and on 3 September 2007 the new company began trading on the London Stock Exchange.

It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

1 Merger process
2 Mainstream Sector
3 Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector
4 Online Destination Services
5 Activity Sector
6 Island Cruises
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Merger process

In March 2007 a takeover was announced between Thomson's parent company TUI AG and First Choice Holidays PLC to form a new company, TUI Travel PLC. In March 2007 TUI AG tourism division agreed to a takeover with First Choice Holidays PLC.^[1]

On May 4 2007 the Commission expressed concern over the potential for dominance in the Irish market from the combined operation. TUI and First Choice released a statement which gave assurances that they would address this issue, including the possibility of selling one of their Irish brands which include Falcon and Budget Travel. This means that Phase One of the Commission's investigation was extended by ten days.

[edit] Mainstream Sector

This sector serves 24m customers a year and is split into two subsections (sales of complete travel packages and sales of components such as flights) and three geographical areas (Central Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe).

Central Europe - covering Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe - contributed a fleet of 48 aircraft, a retail estate of 1,774 shops and over 9,400 employees.

Northern Europe - UK, Ireland and Canada, and the Nordic countries - has a fleet of 84 aircraft, a retail estate of 1,131 shops and over 22,000 employees.

Western Europe - France, the Netherlands and Belgium - had a fleet of 20 aircraft, a retail estate of 689 shops and over 6,500 employees.

The sector has 89 brands including Thomson and First Choice.

[edit] Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector

The sector includes 25 brands covering 2m customers and 3,000 employees. This sector is split into three divisions (Destination, Premium and Lifestages).

Destination is the companies portfolio of local market leaders, Premium is 5 UK-based brands offering 'premium leisure travel experiences' in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. Lifestages is the demographic specialist arm, aiming at groups such as older people and students.

[edit] Online Destination Services

39 brands with 15m customers and 4,400 employees covering direct sale of holidays and components and including Laterooms.com.

[edit] Activity Sector

39 brands with almost 400,000 customers every year, employing approximately 3,300, divided into six subsectors (Marine, Adventure, Polar, Sports, Ski and Schools).

Marine comprises Moorings & Sunsail Yachts, Sunsail Clubs watersports holidays and Le Boat (formerly Inland Waterways). Adventure includes trekking and expedition cruising companies such as TrekAmerica, Exodus and The Adventure Company. Experiential offers US-based specialist escorted tours. iExplore.com is their one-stop portal website for this sector.