It’s been a busy week at Thomas Cook (TCG). First, the travel company announced a partnership with LMEY Investments, a Swiss property development company, to create a joint hotel investment platform to help expand Thomas Cook's portfolio of own-brand hotels. Both companies will contribute at least five owned and directly-managed hotel properties as "seed assets" with a combined value of about £150m. Thomas Cook has also bought a 42 per cent stake in Aldiana, a German club and activity-focused tour operator, from LMEY. Aldiana currently has eight locations across Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia, and Austria, with plans to open four more resorts over the next two years.
Next, the travel group reported that bookings from the current summer season are up by more than a fifth on last year and are now 91 per cent sold, with customers spending an average of 1 per cent more. Travelers have also started booking more holidays to Turkey and north Africa again after having been scared off by fears of terrorism in previous periods. And the upcoming winter season is well over a third sold, with overall group bookings up 3 per cent.
Finally, chief financial officer Michael Healy is set to retire in March next year after five years with the group. He will be replaced by Bill Scott, currently director of financial reporting at Thomas Cook.
