Become the leading travel-related financial services provider

Travel-related financial services, in particular ‘travel money’ and ‘travel assurance’, remain an important and profitable part of our strategy. Whilst travel-related financial services account for only 1.4% of revenue, they account for 13% of profit from operations before exceptional items. This year has seen a renewed focus on the key UK foreign exchange business, with some innovative sales and marketing efforts including our new rate boards that compare Thomas Cook rates to other major providers. As a result we have seen a three percentage point increase in our foreign exchange market share in that market, without any major impact on margins.

In addition to our traditional foreign exchange business, we are continuing to expand our range of travel money products to take advantage of changing consumer trends and new legislation. These include Thomas Cook ATMs in the UK, North America and soon to be in major resorts, the deployment of dynamic currency conversion technologies, pre-paid foreign currency cards and a growth in our money transfer capability.

Within our travel assurance product portfolio, we are expecting significant savings to come from a review and re-tender of our sourcing and underwriting arrangements across our major markets for travel insurance related products. We have also continued to focus on the cross-sell of insurance products to our travel customers, and are exploring options to offer direct insurance sales.