European tour operating veteran Thomas Cook Group has acknowledged that “customers continue to shift online” with online revenues for the business up by 18% across the group, with particular progress in the UK which is up 33% year on year. The investments in our websites have continued to increase visits – up 5% across the group – and conversion, particularly on mobile, which is up 23%. Overall, mobile bookings have grown by 55%, showing improvement across all of our markets.”

As part of its digital strategy, Thomas Cook Group has some interesting partnerships in place, with the report highlighting its tie-ups with Webjet and Expedia.

One benefit of having differentiated product and an improved website is that it can upsell personalized services to customers more easily. During the half, it was able to generate an extra ￡10 per customer in the UK from offering personalized services, adding that it has started to implement a yield pricing strategy for these ancillaries.

It is also planning to expand its “choose your room” feature this summer, which will be available at 300 hotels. Allowing guests to select rooms is not unheard of in the hotel space, but its “choose your sunbed” initiative is unusual. It will roll this out to 50 properties in the summer, giving guests the chance to pay in advance to reserve a specific sunbed.

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