Tour Operator

PhocusWire's in-depth coverage of the tour operator sector, featuring news, analysis, interviews, research and more on the brands in multi-day, single-day and packages, including their strategies, executives and positions in the market.

News / Online

Thomson serves up one minute holiday to chase away winter blues

By Linda Fox | May 8, 2013

As part of its ongoing Holidays Just Got Better campaign, Thomson has released a quirky effort to get us all thinking about the summer Read More

News / Online

Thomas Cook tunes into social media with listening lab

By Linda Fox | April 25, 2013

Lots of buzz words kicking about in Thomas Cook's announcement of a 24/7 rapid response social media listening lab Read More

News / Online

Gunyah tour distribution service closes down, WHL pledges to relaunch it with new focus

By Kevin May | April 7, 2013

Despite just 12 months ago there being talk of a pretty confident future ahead, tour distribution platform startup Gunyah has shut its doors - temporarily, at least. Read More

News / Online

Reality bites: Thomas Cook reins in lofty ambition of being bigger than Expedia

By Kevin May | March 18, 2013

Three years is a long time in the travel industry, but especially so for Thomas Cook, after going through a torrid time in terms of staff morale, industry and consumer opinion of the business and a... Read More

News / Online

If I was a digital guru at Thomas Cook...

By Alex Bainbridge | March 18, 2013

Last week the industry and mainstream media in Europe were talking a lot about Thomas Cook. Why? Because new(ish) CEO Harriet Green has a plan to turn around the company. Read More

News / Online

TUI Travel buys tours and activities specialist Isango

By Kevin May | February 27, 2013

Tours and activities just got that little bit more interesting with news that European tour operating giant TUI Travel has bought tours and activities provider Isango. Read More

News / Online

GetYourGuide to be sole provider of tours and activities to TUI agents

By Kevin May | February 25, 2013

Travel agents working with TUI in Germany will have their pick of tours and activities by way of a new supplier after the tour operator turned over responsibility to GetYouGuide. Read More

News / Online

Social media and fancy video to lure people to the latest Best Job in Travel

By Linda Fox | January 9, 2013

New Year, new job? First Choice is going the way of Tourism Queensland and others by recruiting a member of the public to become its new water slide tester. Read More

News / Online

Taking a travel team on a team-building month in paradise - crazy or clever?

By Viewpoints | December 13, 2012

We often work in very decentralized organisations in the travel industry. One unit is located in an outgoing market, another office is located at the incoming destination. Read More

News / Online

Farewell Octopus Travel - consumer brand axed as Kuoni focuses on B2B

By Kevin May | November 25, 2012

No fanfare or redirecting to alternative places to book a hotel - Octopus Travel, a name synonymous with the early days of travel on the web for consumers, is no more. Read More

News / Online

Yay! Travel infographics finally getting interesting and interactive [err INFOGRAPHIC]

By Kevin May | November 23, 2012

Thank goodness for HTML5, allowing travel sites to spruce up their pages (especially on mobile) for users. And getting the attention a lot more recently is the much-maligned infographic. Read More

News / Online

What do Global Brand Pages on Facebook mean to travel? [Hint: quite a lot]

By Viewpoints | November 5, 2012

Whenever Facebook launches an update to its site it generally affects A LOT of people. One billion people, in fact. Read More

News / Online

Big tech alert: Long tail markets may leapfrog traditional travel retailers

By Viewpoints | October 24, 2012

A recent Tnooz post explored why web bookings for mainstream tours and activities such as bus tours are still "largely a dream" and focused on operational issues such as the use of vouchers by tour... Read More

News / Online

Tours and activities: instant web bookings still largely a dream

By Alex Kremer | October 11, 2012

When one reads articles like Tnooz's recent piece on Foursquare accepting instant restaurant bookings, it's easy to jump to the conclusion (as our dear editor did) that tours and activities must be... Read More