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Major investor buys Travel Plus

Deal comes as trips abroad on the rise

By Michael Heitmann
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 12th, 2007 issue

The second-largest travel company in Europe has become the first major foreign investor to enter the domestic travel agency market.
Thomas Cook, jointly owned by Lufthansa and the German retail chain Karstadt, has acquired Travel Plus, which operates travel agencies in Prague and three other locations across the country under the Lufthansa City Center brand. The deal was finalized last month, with Thomas Cook buying the company for 3.1 million euros ($4.2 million/85.7 million Kč).
Travel packages will be sold under the Thomas Cook brand name Neckermann Reisen. In addition, the agency will continue to sell vacation packages offered by Czech operators, said General Manager Udo Wichert.
For the time being, Thomas Cook will rely on customers to take their own cars on vacations and won’t offer charter flights.
“They won’t compete with us,” said Dan Plovajko, spokesman for Fischer, one of the country’s largest travel agencies. Fischer’s catalog doesn’t even list the kind of vacation packages Thomas Cook has announced it will focus on, such as ski resort trips or weekends to major European cities, he added.
The Thomas Cook deal comes as local travel agencies have reported record sales this past summer.
In particular, demand for foreign travel is on the rise, according to the Association of Czech Travel Companies and Agencies (AČCKA), which expects Czechs to take some 2.1 million trips to foreign destinations this year, up 5 percent from last year.
As an added bonus, travelers from the country are also forking out more money for their foreign trips, an average 14,500 Kč ($713) all-inclusive. They might even pay an additional charge to get an ocean-view room, said Tomio Okamura, AČCKA board member.
“The average price of vacation packages has grown 6 percent,” Plovajko said. “Our clients are choosing higher quality packages, including accommodations in better hotels and all-inclusive food and drink options.”
For the first time ever, this season Fischer’s catalog did not even include the option of two-star accommodations.
“Only a couple of years ago, customers would book two-star hotels in Paris,” Wichert confirmed. “Today, the price isn’t all that counts,” as clients are willing to shell out an extra 3,000 Kč to enjoy four-star comfort.
Croatia remains the most popular summer destination. Czechs have long been fond of the Mediterranean, but more exotic countries like Egypt and Tunisia are drawing their attention.
While summer vacations to countries bordering the Mediterranean also dominate the top-10 list of the travel agency Čedok, more of its clients are discovering the potential of traveling in the off-season. Not only the price but also the weather can be more attractive, said Čedok spokesman Tomáš Brejcha, as “a number of destinations experience a heat wave during the main season.”
For some, even the mild temperatures of this year’s summer proved too much.
“There is a new demand for ‘escape the heat’ trips during the summer vacation, for example to Iceland or Scandinavia,” Brejcha said.

Michael Heitmann can be reached at mheitmann@praguepost.com


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