Sound familiar?
TUI Travel UK and Ireland boss Dermot Blastland is always good value for money when talking to the press, and his ten minute speech at TUI’s first anniversary media bash last night was no exception.
XL Leisure Group’s collapse last week was, Dermot claimed, down to the fact that it “wasn’t a well-run company” and that it “couldn’t compete with the cost-base of large-scale companies like us”.
Scale? Hasn’t lastminute.com’s Ian McCaig made that word his own? Apparently not. Dermot went on to say that the market was polarising into big players such as TUI and Thomas Cook and specialist/niche operators and any businesses “stuck in the middle” will suffer.
TUI of course has a strong set of specialist businesses, so it’s got a good position at both ends of the market. So good a position that Dermot said the business was having “a cracking time”, as indeed is its rival Thomas Cook.
“We’re both having record years,” he confidentally stated.
I wonder if lastminute.com – or any of the online travel agencies - could say a similar thing?
Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution
3 comments:
XL was run differently to TUI.... which could lead to accusations of being badly run (as Dermot has claimed)
The difference is that XL was, at senior level, packed with entrepreneurs.... while TUI are packed with operational people who know how to run a tight ship.
This means that XL had flashes of brilliance.... with TUI - its difficult to see where these flashes are - however most projects are well conceived and organisationally sound. Solid.
However - looks like the steady ship has won the race. Something to muse on.
Anonymous: spamming again....
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