‘The Right Thing To Do’ – Tui Rebrand Announcement

On the 11th May 2015 TUI announced a group restructure.

The Thomson and First Choice name will be phased out and will sell under a single global rebrand. This will include Central, Northern and Western Europe.

But don’t expect changes to happen straight away as the plan is to take everything slowly. The process will begin in Netherlands, France, and Belgium, taking approximately five years to complete, while the UK will be the last country to merge.

The fleet of airlines that TUI own will also be rebranded under a single British based banner, which will include Thomson Airways, TUIfly Nordic, Arkefly, TUIfly, and Jetairfly.

First introduced in 1965, the Thomson name was founded as part of the Thomson Travel Group when Roy Thomson acquired Skytours, Riviera, Luxitours, and Britannia Airways.

In 1972 Thomson purchased Lunn Poly which was the largest chain of travel agents in the UK. However, the name Lunn Poly changed in 2004 when it was rebranded as Thomson Holidays.

Then in 2000 The Thomson Travel Group was acquired by Preussag AG and was renamed TUI AG in July 2002, which is when Thomson became TUI UK. TUI UK includes Thomson Holidays, Thomson Lakes, Thomson Ski and Thomson Airways (rebranded from Britannia Airways to Thomsonfly then Thomson Airways after Thomson merged with First Choice). The merge of Thomson and First Choice Airways happened on 1st November 2008.

First Choice was formed in 1973, and was known as Owners Abroad. In 1987 they acquired Air2000, followed by Redwing in 1990.The company changed its name and First Choice was introduced in 1994.
The merger with TUI AG was announced in March 2007 and TUI Travel PLC began operations in the September of that year.

In 2011 it was announced that the rebrand would be known as Thomson featuring First Choice, and First Choice would focus on All Inclusive holidays.

It was also announced last week that the UK hotel booking website LateRooms is being put up for sale.

The merger has made TUI one of the world’s largest travel companies, but it seems that there are no plans to change the highly recognisable TUI smile logo.