Fosun is reported to be planning to launch the Thomas Cook brand as an OTA imminently, after applying for an ATOL licence earlier this year.
The Chinese company acquired the Thomas Cook brand and its IP assets for £11m in November last year.
Fosun had been a shareholder in the company, which was broken up after announcing its liquidation last September.
Fosun told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, “With a history of 178 years, the Thomas Cook brand is the frontrunner of establishing [the] tourism industry and one of the most well-known tourism brands around the world.
“The acquisition of Thomas Cook as a global brand would enable the group to expand the tour operator business riding on the robust growth momentum of Chinese outbound tourism, leveraging the extensive brand awareness and profound influence of Thomas Cook.
“The introduction of Casa Cook, Cook’s Club, the resort/hotel brands under the Thomas Cook brand would further enrich the offering of accommodation[s] choices for tourism destinations business by the group, diversify its resort and hotel operations and improve the Foliday [aka Fosun Tourism Group] ecosystem in providing customers with quality holiday experience[s] across the globe.”
The Foliday platform focused on families and was part of what the group referred to as its “happiness ecosystem,” which also included Club Med and brewer Tsingtao and French fashion house Lanvin.
Earlier this year Fosun Tourism chairman Qian Jiannong said that company was seeing the epidemic “changing consumers’ perception on consumption profoundly”.
Jiannong said that the outbreak meant that “consumers generally expect a higher quality and better service in tourism”. He said: “We believe that our upgraded products will better meet the market’s future demand. We proactively responded to the epidemic with reasonable cost control on operations and headquarters’ expenses and maintaining a stable financial position.”
The Fosun chairman said: “The current epidemic is an international public health crisis, yet our innovative business model helps the group to withstand the crisis, reap the rebound opportunities after the epidemic crisis and look for opportunity and driving force of sustainable growth amid the crisis.”
The company reported that, despite the outbreak of the COVID-19 since the end of January 2020, it had recorded a strong performance in the first two months of the year, with the resort operation increasing by approximately 8%, and Ebitda increasing over 20% on the year. The group said that 87% of its tourism revenue came from outside Greater China, as a result of its €939m purchase of Club Med in 2015. Fosun Tourism also acquired the Thomas Cook brand for £11m last November, with the deal including the Casa Cook and Cook’s Club hotel brands.
Last month saw the ongoing dispersal of the Thomas Cook portfolio, with LMEY buying out Thomas Cook out of its hotel investment platform, which was established in May 2018, for an undisclosed fee.
The platform has eight operating hotels, including two Casa Cook properties.
Westfort Capital managing director Piers Bradley, said: "We are very pleased that LMEY have increased their shareholding to 100%. In LMEY we have a strong partner who supported our business from inception and who will continue to work with us to realise our ambitions for further growth.”
LMEY founder Hans Kortlevers said: "Acquiring full ownership of Westfort Capital represents an exciting opportunity to expand LMEY's investment in a robust platform, with an experienced management team, and a high-quality hotel portfolio.
"The tourism industry has been challenged by the Covid-19 crisis, however we are confident that we have an attractive range of destinations, and the emerging appetite we're seeing for bookings indicates a positive bounce back. With an excellent track record of growth, we look forward to the next phase and the prospect of further hotel investments in the near future.”
Westfort Capital was established in May 2018 to acquire and reposition underperforming and underinvested hotels across Mediterranean sun and beach markets. The number of investments held has doubled from a seed portfolio of four operating hotels to eight today, with further development properties on the pipeline. Current operators include OKU Hotels, a newly established brand, focused on the five-star luxury hotel segment with existing hotels in Ibiza and Kos.
Insight: Do we need another OTA? Probably not. Do we need a trusted brand? Very probably. The pandemic has not bought out the greatest of looks in the OTAs, with issues around refunds making many customers more than a little peevish when it came to using them.
By the time people were forgetting about holidays past and thinking of holidays new, the picture looked better and both Booking and Expedia had good news for their results, albeit based around homesharing.
The consumer is under pressure and will be for some time and hotels need to ensure that the good work done by direct booking campaigns is not underdone by years of hard work by the OTAs to convince travellers that they are the cheaper option. As we reported last month, the global operators used the recent results season to deny that the shift to leisure demand had made them more reliant on the OTAs for business. The appearance of another with a sterling lineage is not going to cheer hotels up. The hope will be that it is at least focused on leisure.