Thomas Cook bolsters ecommerce team with digital marketer
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Thomas Cook has recruited BSkyB digital marketer Louise Mullock to help grow online sales.
The travel company has appointed Mullock to the new role of group sales and marketing director for ecommerce. It plans to ramp up its digital offering with particular focus on the website thomascook.com.
Positioning as an Online Travel Agent (OTA) is part of Thomas Cook’s long term strategy. In a management statement in August the company said: “Plans for the Online Travel Agency are now well underway and we expect the organisation to be largely in place for the commencement of the next financial year on October 1 2010.”
The strategy reflects trends in the travel industry that have seen both independent and mainstream holiday sales rise 11% year on year.
Mullock is expected to join Thomas Cook by the end of this month and will report to CEO for ecommerce Thomas Doering.
She was previously head of online sales and marketing at BSkyB and while in the role oversaw the appointment of Bigmouthmedia to handle natural search.
She is also a former head of online marketing at the Carphone Warehouse.
Thomas Cook plans to merge its retail high street operation with the Co-Operative Travel and Midlands Co-Operative Society. It is waiting for anti-trust clearance from the European Commission before moving ahead with the initiative.
YouGov Insight:
Holidaying
- Two thirds of consumers have taken short breaks in the UK over the past year.
- However, the recession and its aftermath have taken a heavy toll on short haul, short breaks. Just over one fifth of adults have taken a European short break over the past year.
- Those who have continued to take European short breaks are most likely to be young single men under 25: essentially, confident travelers who have been less affected by the recession than older consumers.
- 1 in 4 young men between the ages of 16 and 24 have taken short breaks in Europe in the last year. This is well above the average of 15% across all demographics.
- 1 in 4 YouGov respondents said that having friends or relative in the area had a bearing on the choice of destination for their last short break.
- Half of ABC1s said that they just don’t like lying on the beach, while only 37% of C2DEs feel the same.
Click here for more information on this YouGov market report
