CONTRACTING with Kuoni Switzerland, UK, Benelux and Scandinavia/Finland is continuing as per normal, even as the Kuoni Group seeks to sell off these operations and its other traditional tour operating businesses in Hong Kong/China and India.
Kuoni’s contract managers from these markets are attending all tradeshows and locking horns with suppliers over rates and allotments as usual. Sellers interviewed also said the announcement by the Kuoni Group that it would exit the tour operating business would not impact contracting at all.
“One has to assume that it (Kuoni UK, Switzerland, etc) will be sold as a growing concern and that the new owners will have a passion and commitment to move the business even further forward than where it is today,” said Chris Bailey, senior vice president sales & marketing Centara Hotels & Resorts Thailand.
But Bailey did express the reservation that the announcement might impact Kuoni staff, however upbeat the message from the management might be, and that the competition would “cherry pick (Kuoni staff) and/or commercial arrangements”.
Kuoni UK is at pains to soothe any jangled nerves, with managing director Derek Jones issuing a statement saying the UK leadership team remained in place “to oversee the process (of the sale) and continue the ambitious plans for growth in the UK market”. He went on to say Kuoni UK would be “working closely with our colleagues in Switzerland to make sure we find the right buyers”.
In the meantime, Jones said: “It’s very much business as usual right now for all our staff and customers. This is the busiest time for holiday bookings and right now our focus is on continuing to deliver brilliant holidays and service for all customers.”
Like Jones, hotels and DMCs interviewed hoped the new owners of these businesses would be able to take the business forward, saying by no means was Kuoni’s move a reflection that the future of tour operating in Europe was dim.
DMCs are in fact salivating at the prospects of new accounts these sell-offs may bring. For example, only Tour East Singapore now handles Kuoni as the account in the rest of the region has gone to Asian Trails since the latter was bought by the Kuoni Group a few years ago.
Read the full story in TTG Asia-ITB Berlin Daily 2015
