Report by Jeremy Skidmore
VIRGIN group has relaunched its Web site under a new retail
division after deciding that its Internet site was not going to generate enough
bookings on its own.
Virgin Travelstore will sell package holidays and
independent travel through its website, teletext, digital TV, Virgin 120 V
shops and even some of its Virgin megastores.
Managing director Ed Sims, who has taken over from Ian
Brooks (see ‘Sims promoted to Virgin Travelstore MD’), admitted that the public’s
reluctance to fully embrace the Internet had influenced its decision.
“The fact that Internet bookings have been slow has made us
change,” he said. “While this is the case, we must have a conventional retailer
and we must be multi-channelled.”
Sims also admitted that Thomson and Airtours were reluctant
to give Virgin their products to sell only on virgin.com.