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fox1 · Guest

Source: Travel Weekly

23 Jan 2004 11:20

THE big four will have to dramatically restructure the way they do
business if they are to survive into the next decade, according to
on-line retailers.

While the multiples will be able to make savings by closing shops,
the huge costs of owning aircraft and having committed beds
threatens their very existence in the long term.

This grim prediction comes as the major on-line players claim to
have won the marketing battle to get consumers to book on the
Internet.

“If any of the traditionals had embraced the web, marketed it and
committed to it, then consumers would have happily transferred,”
said Ebookers UK group managing director Peter Liney. “But the
problem they have now is that we are not small any more. People’s
first port of call isn’t First Choice or Lunn Poly on-line. Those
companies have lost the branding game.”

Lastminute.com head of sales and marketing Andrew Windsor - formerly
head of distribution at Thomas Cook - said the multiples would have
to face up to the difficult ‘intellectual’ challenge of how their
businesses were structured. TUI UK had made efforts to depackage
with the launch of Thomsonfly.com, but only First Choice - with its
move towards specialist brands - had made any real effort to
restructure the way it did business.

First Choice managing director UK and Ireland Dermot Blastland said
it would not reduce its number of shops, but they could become more
integrated.

“More people want to go on-line but it doesn’t mean people don’t
want contact,” he said.

Vertically-integrated companies had assets such as brand strength,
staff in resorts and strict health and safety standards, he added.

“I think these on-line companies are just casting aspersions on the
quality of our staff. They want to talk their companies up. They
talk about the big companies as if they are run by dinosaurs. What
are they other than a bit of technology?”

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