I've noticed on some of the Thomson Airways aircraft that have taken the new TUI branding and livery to become TUI Airlines have the TUI.com painted on the engines, yet the TUI.com website is for the German branch of the company and the German holiday website... why would they paint a website address on the engines of a British aircraft that directs you to a German package holiday booking website? I know it's still TUI but it's not like British holidaymakers are going to book through TUI.com? Kind of seems stupid advertising... unless when you go to TUI.com it gives you an initial webpage to select the country you wish to book from, which it doesn't, does anyone know the reasoning behind this? Because isn't every TUI aircraft across the entire company (Belgium, Holland, Nordic, UK etc) all going to get TUI.com painted on the engines?? This seems stupid, but would like to know the rationale behind it!?

All TUI group member airlines, besides only Corsair International, will be rebranded as TUI.

As far as the website is concerned, you can always select your branch of the group from TUI.com. Just click on the flag on the upper-right corner.

TUI isn't just German, it's pan-European. Indeed the name TUI finds it's origin in Germany, but it's nothing new to have TUI-alligned airlines rebranded. The Dutch TUI airline used to be called ArkeFly. That name has disappeared and now it's called TUI just like it's German sister-airline. Same thing happened in Belgium where JetairFly was rebranded into TUI. And now it's time for the UK airline Thomson. Nothing new, just another step in a long going process.

MoonC wrote:

As far as the website is concerned, you can always select your branch of the group from TUI.com. Just click on the flag on the upper-right corner.

That said, TUI could do better job redirecting you to the correct branch based on IP address, or have TUI.com be a splash page were you select the site suitable for your needs.

Polot wrote:

MoonC wrote:

As far as the website is concerned, you can always select your branch of the group from TUI.com. Just click on the flag on the upper-right corner.

That said, TUI could do better job redirecting you to the correct branch based on IP address, or have TUI.com be a splash page were you select the site suitable for your needs.

That I do agree with.

Edit: I did not notice it but yes, it took me straight to TUI.ch.
I had not noticed at first as for some reason I was expecting a page written in French and not German, for us Suisses romands.

Ive just clicked tui.com and its taken me to the Thomson holidays website, both on desktop and on mobile.

Seems like they do have some kind of location detection. When I open Tui.com here in the Netherlands I'm being taken to the Dutch site. However I can switch to other sites by clicking on the flag in the upper right corner. However, not sure how the site reacts if you're from a country they don't have a site for.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Seems like they do have some kind of location detection. When I open Tui.com here in the Netherlands I'm being taken to the Dutch site. However I can switch to other sites by clicking on the flag in the upper right corner. However, not sure how the site reacts if you're from a country they don't have a site for.

That is probably the main issue. Being in the US (not sure where the OP is, but probably US too) Tui.com takes me straight to the German site. Should probably build a splash page for situations like that, granted TUI is not really targeting passengers outside their home markets.

I know all the TUI group airlines (except corsair) are rebranding to TUI airlines and all aligning with each other, that isn't the question, the question is why paint TUI.com on the side of all the aircraft from the entire group when the website automatically takes you to TUI Deutschland... doesn't make sense it's bad advertising!!! Why not have a welcome page and allow you to select which country you are booking from, the average traveler isn't going to go looking through a German website to find a tiny flag in the corner.... from here in America it takes me to the German website, and my family in England sometimes get the Thomson website and other times get directed to the German one... they should really address this issue, I mean what if your a British holiday maker in Spain trying to check on something?

XLA2008 wrote:

the question is why paint TUI.com on the side of all the aircraft from the entire group when the website automatically takes you to TUI Deutschland...

That's just the thing, it doesn't. It takes you to the website of your country of origin. I'm in the Netherlands and it takes me to the Dutch website. Not sure why you're taken to the German website, but I suppose that's got something to do with you and not with the site.

I admit a splash screen would be better, but it's not as bad as you describe.

I thought it was purely the airlines that were changing the names, as far as I know Thomson holidays and first choice will still remain but you will be booked on a tui airlines flight not Thomson airways

This is terrible re-branding exercise that screams vengeance from day one. Doing away with the Thomson name for a blunt schizoid acronym like TUI is bad, but doing the same to a classy name with a heritage (Britannia, that is) was inexcusable. What is the big deal of keeping separate names for separate markets?
At least Thomas Cook grew a pair and reinstated the Condor brand for German flyers.

oldannyboy wrote:

This is terrible re-branding exercise that screams vengeance from day one. Doing away with the Thomson name for a blunt schizoid acronym like TUI is bad, but doing the same to a classy name with a heritage (Britannia, that is) was inexcusable. What is the big deal of keeping separate names for separate markets?
At least Thomas Cook grew a pair and reinstated the Condor brand for German flyers.

Its just far more expensive to maintain dozens auf different brands. As you might have noticed TUI is shifting a lot of planes around during the different seasons between their airlines and for the winter period over to Sunwings in Canada. Same thing applies to their Hotel brands which they are streamlining to the same brands across their different markets e.g. Robinson Club, RIU, Family Life, Club Magic Life etc.
Another reason to brand it all as TUI is that a common TUI brand will build a stronger company worldwide. Same name, same logo sells stronger and better than having a bunch of over 200 different brands to maintain and advertise. In fact all of that is explained on their main tui-group.com site by their Chief Marketing Officer.

The switch to Condor by Thomas Cook just had a bad timing as well as it was just quickly after 9/11 where all carriers were dealing with too much capacity and hesitant travelers. Switching in The Netherlands had very positive effects TUI sad themselves so I hope the same will happen in the UK as well.

Another thing TUI is doing in the coming years is that they will switch certain markets from pure holiday destinations to new core markets for customers. This will happen in Spain, Portugal and Brazil for example as well as China. They've just set up a JV in China for that and the TUI.com site will be accessible for Spanisch, Portuguese and Brazilian customers to book their travels to Europe, Americas, Asia etc. They do not plan however to set up travel agencies in these new countries.

LTH

LTH wrote:

oldannyboy wrote:

This is terrible re-branding exercise that screams vengeance from day one. Doing away with the Thomson name for a blunt schizoid acronym like TUI is bad, but doing the same to a classy name with a heritage (Britannia, that is) was inexcusable. What is the big deal of keeping separate names for separate markets?
At least Thomas Cook grew a pair and reinstated the Condor brand for German flyers.

Its just far more expensive to maintain dozens auf different brands. As you might have noticed TUI is shifting a lot of planes around during the different seasons between their airlines and for the winter period over to Sunwings in Canada.

Well, I don't really think it is. It just needs stickers with different names on the outside of an aircraft. The basic livery (however ghastly) could remain the same.
At the end of the day it's all about how much value you put into a brand. Britannia Airways was a great, internationally-recognized brand. Thomson was a brand in the UK...and a pretty huge one. TUI might be a brand in the German market, but to the outside world (with the exception of maybe Northern Europe) it remains a meaningless acronym, even when you know how large and powerful it is....Touristik Union Internazional??

Once all the planes are re-branded from the airport all through your package holiday all you will see is TUI, went to Rhodes last year booked through Thomson and once out there everything was TUI, coaches, reps etc, did get confusing though when I sat in a welcome meeting and it was all in German! The English one was in a different room and the hotel staff thought all the reps were the same too lol But I digress

PatrickZ80 wrote:

XLA2008 wrote:

the question is why paint TUI.com on the side of all the aircraft from the entire group when the website automatically takes you to TUI Deutschland...

That's just the thing, it doesn't. It takes you to the website of your country of origin. I'm in the Netherlands and it takes me to the Dutch website. Not sure why you're taken to the German website, but I suppose that's got something to do with you and not with the site.

I admit a splash screen would be better, but it's not as bad as you describe.

I'm not the only person that gets directed to the German website....

XLA2008 wrote:

PatrickZ80 wrote:

XLA2008 wrote:

the question is why paint TUI.com on the side of all the aircraft from the entire group when the website automatically takes you to TUI Deutschland...

That's just the thing, it doesn't. It takes you to the website of your country of origin. I'm in the Netherlands and it takes me to the Dutch website. Not sure why you're taken to the German website, but I suppose that's got something to do with you and not with the site.

I admit a splash screen would be better, but it's not as bad as you describe.

I'm not the only person that gets directed to the German website....

I'm in the UK. Today, I visited tui.com from two different computers, at two different locations and both times it took me to the Thomson website. So there must be something wrong your end?

Virginblue4 wrote:

XLA2008 wrote:

PatrickZ80 wrote:

That's just the thing, it doesn't. It takes you to the website of your country of origin. I'm in the Netherlands and it takes me to the Dutch website. Not sure why you're taken to the German website, but I suppose that's got something to do with you and not with the site.

I admit a splash screen would be better, but it's not as bad as you describe.

I'm not the only person that gets directed to the German website....

I'm in the UK. Today, I visited tui.com from two different computers, at two different locations and both times it took me to the Thomson website. So there must be something wrong your end?

As discussed earlier in the thread it likely depends on whether your IP address is in a country with a TUI website or not. If yes then you get redirected to the proper website (thomson.co.uk, tui.no, etc). If not you go straight to TUI.com...which is the German website. They should probably make tui.com a splash page so visitors can make sure they go to the right website and give the German site a different URL, but TUI doesn't seem to mind, especially since 99% of their passengers will be based in one of their European countries anyways.

oldannyboy wrote:

LTH wrote:

oldannyboy wrote:

This is terrible re-branding exercise that screams vengeance from day one. Doing away with the Thomson name for a blunt schizoid acronym like TUI is bad, but doing the same to a classy name with a heritage (Britannia, that is) was inexcusable. What is the big deal of keeping separate names for separate markets?
At least Thomas Cook grew a pair and reinstated the Condor brand for German flyers.

Its just far more expensive to maintain dozens auf different brands. As you might have noticed TUI is shifting a lot of planes around during the different seasons between their airlines and for the winter period over to Sunwings in Canada.

Well, I don't really think it is. It just needs stickers with different names on the outside of an aircraft. The basic livery (however ghastly) could remain the same.
At the end of the day it's all about how much value you put into a brand. Britannia Airways was a great, internationally-recognized brand. Thomson was a brand in the UK...and a pretty huge one. TUI might be a brand in the German market, but to the outside world (with the exception of maybe Northern Europe) it remains a meaningless acronym, even when you know how large and powerful it is....Touristik Union Internazional??

Its way more than putting cheap stickers on airplanes. In case of modern marketing and a seamless travel experience one brand for all services and all parts of the journey from booking to tour operator to airline and local busses one name is the way to go. As you correctly stated it is about how much value TUI can put into the TUI brand in markets where TUI is not familiar today. A good and emotional campaign can easily create that value in "new" markets for sure. Sometimes its simply time to move on even if it means to do away with old and diverse brands.

Personally I think the TUI colors symbolize holidays, sun, relaxation und new discoveries way more than the very grey and dark colors Thomas Cook has switched to. Even employees call their new logo a "band aid" rather than a "sunny heart".

LTH