Talking about brand sustainability for Thomas Cook in an Australian environment can be a little bit tricky for the simple reason that they didn’t last very long on the big island and couldn’t really reach the local customers or tourists. The British giant operated mainly in Europe, a little bit in Thailand, China, Gambia, United Arab Emirates, and Maldives according to their Sustainability report of 2018. And not so much around the Aussie land nor the Kiwi island (New Zealand).
But on a more general point of view, Thomas Cook actually worked on some interesting angles in order to maintain their sustainability: environment. They’ve developed it on a global scale in order to preach a more responsible way to travel while taking care of the environment. But what about the brand’s sustainability in itself? Why didn’t they last in the oceanic area? According to the Australian Financial Review the company was on for only a year and didn’t last much longer simply because the main market in Europe was collapsing due to an infernal hot summer that forced many people to skip their overseas holidays. The new owner transformed it into Tilda Travel and without Thomas Cook backup it became just a small start-up with not many employees and not a lot of funds but that still managed to sign deals with partners and make profit. It can be an interesting example of a travel company targeting tailored trips but that didn’t drown in front of the pressure caused by internet and every new technology. They simply managed to shift around and as they say they focused more on “business clients andcharging fees instead of commissions. » still according to the AFR.
In our geographical zone, Thomas Cook struggled to develop their sustainability to a point they had to sell their business locally while watching that new ownership successfully working out the same struggle they were facing. It is true they also focused on important global sustainability issues such as environment and are advocating for a more responsible way to travel. But they might want to concentrate on their own strategy as their state is getting worse as the time goes by.
Source:
James Fernyhough, 21stMarch 2019, Australian Financial Review : https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/travel-giant-thomas-cook-quits-australia-after-nightmare-year-20190321-p51639
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