Become a leading independent travel provider

We have continued to see a growth in our independent travel businesses, with revenues increasing 10% year-on-year. This is a result of investments in dynamic packaging capabilities that enable consumers to build their own packages either online or with an agent. It is also as a result of expanding our product range both through a number of recent acquisitions such as Gold Medal, Med Hotels and Hotels4U as well as sales and marketing efforts of our existing product ranges.

In addition to investments in dynamic packaging capabilities and products, we have focused our efforts on significantly improving our online capabilities. Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using the web to research, book and manage their holidays and as a result this is driving much of the growth in independent travel. As well as ongoing content management, merchandising, programming and technology investment we have also ensured that customers receive a seamless experience across all our channels including stores and call centres.

In the medium term, we plan to build upon this platform to become a leading player in the European online travel agency market. Plans are well underway, with a focus initially in the UK where we will leverage our existing brands, experience, technology and inventory to quickly establish a strong position from which we can expand into other European markets.

Our wholesale business also continues to expand. In North America, the TriWest business acquired at the end of the 2007/08 financial year has been successfully integrated, making Thomas Cook one of the leading independent wholesalers in the Canadian market. In Europe, we now have leading bed bank, flight consolidator and wholesale scheduled package positions following integration of our Hotels4U, Med Hotels and Gold Medal acquisitions. We are using this position to help drive growth in this segment of the market.