TUI Travel is to drop its Trips Worldwide and Magic of the Orient brands, with product integrated into an expanded Travelmood business. The changes are the result of a 30-day strategic review of longhaul brands Travelmood, Austravel and Trips Worldwide, as exclusively revealed by Travolution in April, following the appointment of Clare Tobin as managing director of…
TUI Travel drops Trips Worldwide and Magic of the Orient brands
TUI Travel is to drop its Trips Worldwide and Magic of the Orient brands, with product integrated into an expanded Travelmood business.
The changes are the result of a 30-day strategic review of longhaul brands Travelmood, Austravel and Trips Worldwide, as exclusively revealed by Travolution in April, following the appointment of Clare Tobin as managing director of specialist longhaul brands.
Former retail sales and operations director for First Choice retail Rad Sofronijevic has been appointed managing director of Travelmood, which will offer a broader portfolio of tailormade longhaul holidays. She will report into Tobin.
In a statement, Tobin confirmed: “A strategic review of a number of these businesses has been undertaken with the aim of bringing together the long-haul brands, improving the offering to customers and strengthening the position in the marketplace.
“As a result we are proposing to expand the Travelmood brand to become a tailormade provider of a wider range of long-haul specialist holidays utilising its already strong presence in the market. Trips [Worldwide] and Magic of the Orient products will be combined into the Travelmood brand.”
The group would not comment on what the changes would mean in terms of jobs and locations of the current Trips Worldwide and Magic of the Orient brands, based out of Bristol.
Tobin added: “We are currently working through a number of proposals to provide cost synergies and efficiencies following the bringing together of the long-haul brands. As this is at a very early stage we are unable to provide any further details at present.”
Austravel will be retained and run separately as a destination specialist operator under Tobin.
More information:
* TUI Travel buys longhaul specialist Travelmood (Travel Weekly, June 10, 2008)
* TUI Travel advertises for new head of mergers and acquisitions (Travel Weekly, September 4, 2008)
