Speaking at an event in London on Monday, UK and Ireland managing director Nick Longman made a series of announcements about future plans. Buried among them, almost incidentally, was the fact that Tui would be getting rid of all printed travel brochures from its 600 shops by 2020.
Think about that. Travel brochures, for so long at the heart of travel sales, with a place in living rooms up and down the country, will be gone from the UK’s biggest travel business. Tui isn’t just turning a page on travel distribution, but tearing up the book. (Or brochure... sorry!)
Longman said the huge cost savings would go back into the business, with technology including more personalised content and video, not to mention virtual and augmented reality, taking the brochures’ place in shops and people’s homes alike.
As today’s teenagers become tomorrow’s travel bookers, there is undoubtedly a logic to catering for future generations with the technology they have grown up with. But the issue will long be one to divide opinion, as it instantly did on flymy.co.uk.
“Bet they end up going back to them! Consumers like something more tangible” said one commenter. “We did it in 2010 – best move we ever made,” said another.
There are no right answers at the moment, and I suspect that for all their confidence, not even Tui is sure that this will be the right move.
I believe that print still has a huge place to play in most people’s lives – working in London, you only have to see the large numbers of commuters reading printed media on public transport every day to understand that.
But then again I would say that, as the proud owner of TTG Media… a modern, multi-platform business that continues to be underpinned by a fantastic printed magazine that delivers for thousands of readers, and a great many advertisers, every week!
Daniel Pearce
managing director, TTG Media
