| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1965 |
| Parent | TUI Travel |
| Website | www.thomson.co.uk |
Thomson Holidays is a UK based travel operator and part of TUI Travel PLC. The company (originally named Thomson Tour Operations, and renamed in 1997) 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. The Thomson Travel Group was owned by the Thomson Corporation of Canada until it was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998. Thomson UK is headquartered in Luton, England.[1] After the intense price-cutting rivalries of the early 1970s, particlularly for the Clarksons Travel Group 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". The 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, Thomson Ski and Thomson Lakes and Britannia Airways (rebranded Thomsonfly, now Thomson Airways after the merger with First Choice Airways) are now subsidiaries of that group, part of TUI Travel PLC.
They were sponsors of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. from 2002-2006.
In 1981 Thomson Holidays were the first recorded users of Business-to-Business online shopping.[2]
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When TTG was floated in 1998, new shareholders were given membership in the "Thomson Founders' Club" which offered a 10% discount on Thomson holidays. Membership was conditional on retaining a minimum of 294 shares, but when TTG was acquired by Preussag membership of the Founders' Club was made permanent and unconditional. However, on 31 January 2008 the Club was abolished without notice or compensation.[3]
Thomson Holidays also operates its own cruise line, Thomson Cruises, that offers low-price cruises around Europe with ships from Louis Cruise Lines and Holland America Line. The company had initially entered the cruise market in 1973, but due to rising fuel costs the venture was terminated in 1976. In 1995, Thomson restarted their cruise line after their competitor Airtours had made a successful entry in the cruise business under their Sun Cruises brand. Thomson Cruises holds approximately a 1% market share of the worldwide cruise industry[4]
MS Island Escape will be added to the Thomson fleet in April 2009, as a result of parent company TUI's acquisition of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s share in Island Cruises that took place in 2008.[5]
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