London – 30 March 2017 –
A Bloomberg article details how Thomas Cook Group, the world’s oldest holiday company, is abandoning a decades-old approach of assigning different nationalities to specific hotels after a survey indicated that the bulk of its clients would be willing to vacation with a more diverse mix of people.
The London-based tour operator, which has units in Britain, Germany, Scandinavia and Belgium, is changing strategy following the poll of 18,000 customers in which 90 percent of respondents in all four markets said they’d happily rub shoulders with a clientele beyond their own countrymen.
“We’ve exposed a myth that Germans want to be with Germans and Brits with Brits,” chief executive officer Peter Fankhauser said. “It seems most people are now willing to mix if the mix is right.”
That means avoiding any one nationality accounting for too great a proportion of a hotel’s occupants, with Nordic travelers helping to ensure a good blend.
Bloomberg says the move, which suggests Britons have become less paranoid about Germans “reserving” sun-loungers with strategically placed beach towels and that continental tourists no longer view the bulk of UK travellers as boorish beer swillers, will improve flexibility as Thomas
Cook seeks to maximise occupancy levels amid a shortage of rooms in its most popular destinations.
Capacity is at a premium after a spate of terror attacks in Turkey and north Africa focused demand on already crowded resorts in Spain and the western Mediterranean.
Thomas Cook is also establishing a new range of own-brand hotels under the Casa Cook banner, the first of which opened on the Greek island of Rhodes last year, with the second undergoing construction on nearby Kos. About 90 percent of customers are new to the company, according to Fankhauser.
Thomas Cook, which attracts about 22 million customers a year, regards the disruption caused by terrorism and other geo-political events as the “new normal”.