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.
Read the full story at: http://www.tnooz.com/2010/10/08/news/thomas-cook-and-co-operative-talk-it-savings-dangle-ota-angle/
