Thomson Holidays

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Thomson Holidays is a UK based travel operator and part of TUI AG. The company was founded as part of the Thomson Travel Group in 1965 following the acquisition of three package holiday travel agencies and the airline Britannia Airways by Roy Thomson.

After the intense price-cutting rivalries of the early 1970s, Thomson restructured the company and in 1972 acquired Lunn Poly, the largest chain of travel agents in the United Kingdom. The name Lunn Poly was kept until 2004, when TUI UK rebranded as Thomson Holidays in order to create a "powerbrand". company insisted that there were no plans to rebrand Lunn Poly. The company are now taking more of their business to the web but still hold a big stake in the high street.

Thomson Travel Group was floated on the London Stock Exchange in May 1998 with a valuation of £1.7 billion. In 2000, TTG was acquired by Preussag AG, an industrial and transportation conglomerate. Preussag was renamed TUI AG on July 1, 2002 and Thomson Travel became TUI UK. Thomson Holidays and Britannia Airways (rebranded Thomsonfly) are now subsidiaries of that group.

In March 2007 a merger was confirmed between Thomson and First Choice Holidays PLC. Which will see both Thomsonfly and First Choice Airways renamed under TUIfly UK. This comes after the merger of MyTravel Group PLC and Thomas Cook AG.

[edit] Thomson Cruises

Thomson Holidays also operates its own cruise line, Thomson Cruises, that offers cheap cruises around Europe with five ships chartered from the Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines. The company had initially entered the cruise market in the 1970s, but due to raising fuel costs the venture was terminated until 1995 when Thomson restarted their cruise line after their competitor Airtours had a made a successful entry in the cruise business under their Sun Cruises brand.