But why the rush to get married? Unusually candid statements from the air travel regulatory body, the Civil Aviation Authority, about changes in the holiday market are revealing. The CAA, which issues the licences (called ATOLs) to companies selling package holidays, has commented on a fall in the number of package holidays -those 'fully bonded', or insured - sold in 2006. It has taken a few years, but the effect of people organising their own flights and hotels on the Internet, instead of buying ready-made packages at the travel agent, is at least beginning to show through in the statistics. Even the 'big four' are contributing to the trend through their websites, where they offer the flexibility to book flights and hotels seperately.
There were some other reasons for the decline in 2006. Fuel-cost supplements added to the brochure prices were offputting, and the operators are steadily cutting capacity, removing some of the poor-quality hotels that consumers with 30 years of Mediterranean experience are rejecting. But the long term trend is away from the packages and towards independent bookings, which means that online sellers like Expedia and Cendant Flightbookers, Travel 2, etc) are creeping up on the tour ops.
The EU will have to ratify the mergers because the 'big four' operate across Europe. Germany's TUI, if it included the UK's First Choice, would sell around 7.5m holidays out of the UK (a third of our market) but globally it would be a giant with 27m customers a year. The enlarged Thomas Cook Group would sell about 6.5m UK-outbound holidays a year, giving just two companies a market share in excess of 60% of the package holiday business.
The new 'big two' would be German-controlled. TUI (Touristik Union International) is a German company and the enlarged Thomas Cook Group would be 52% owned by KarstadtQuelle, 48% by MyTravel shareholders.
Cost-saving consolidation is the order of the day but the groups are not monolithic in structure. The new number two will take the Thomas Cook name in recognition of trust consumers place in the world's oldest "tour" brand, but MyTravel was an umbrella for many specialist brands which will survive: Cresta (city breaks), Manos (Greece), Direct Holidays (direct-sell), and probably the big general brand at the core of MyTravel, Airtours. These will join former Thomas Cook brochures like JMC and Club 18-30 in the new group.
Thomson Holidays and First Choice are the big TUI brands but the united group brings together a startling range of familiar holiday brands: Simply, Meon, Trek America, Exodus, Hayes & Jarvis, Skibound et al. The specialist holidays - upmarket, long-haul, adventure, clubbing, sporting etc - have been preserved but when booking on their websites, the brochure name is no longer as important as it was when High Street travel agents sold nearly all the packages.
