There will be plenty of analysis in the mainstream media and trade papers next week about the consequences of two large travel agency groups merging in the UK.
The agreement to create a new offline business by combining the retail shops from Thomas Cook and Co-Operative Travel Group is an important move in the UK, although it is also comes just a few years after the mergers (and subsequent retail agency consolidation) of Thomas Cook with MyTravel and Thomson with First Choice.
In short, the merger creates the UK's largest high street retailer with around 1,200 shop fronts, gives Thomas Cook a wider distribution chain for its package products and creates the second largest foreign currency exchange business in the country.
But from a tech and online perspective the announcement is less clear.
The business will save around £2 million a year through the "harmonisation" of the existing IT systems. Thomas Cook says it is too early to explain precisely what this entails but presumably it will mean combining some back office systems, offline retail payment gateways and other areas.
But perhaps one of the most interest elements, once again, is actually the spectre of the widely puffed but little understood online travel agency that Thomas Cook has dangled in front of the industry now for almost 12 months.
With today's announcement, Thomas Cook mentions the OTA once again:
"Thomas Cook will increase the in-house distribution of its mainstream package holidays and, together with the expansion of its online travel agency, strengthen its multi-channel proposition to customers."
Already Thomas Cook is talking about the "expansion" of its OTA, although it has yet to reveal exactly how its OTA will operate.
But according to previous Thomas Cook announcements, the OTA is scheduled to launch in October 2010 (now, in other words).
Thomas Cook officials have consistently refused to talk about the new agency, except to confirm a high level appointment and when ex-Expedia Europe boss Simon Breakwell was consulting in the initial phases last year.
There are still more questions than answers at this stage, and the latest move to combine the Thomas Cook offline retail agency business with another company raises more for its wider online strategy.