Bookings through Thomas Cook high-street agents remain the most profitable and its retail estate is only likely to shrink by about 100 shops over the next five years.
Group chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said Thomas Cook shops remained the most profitable source of bookings because staff took brochured bookings.
He said: “Brochure bookings are where we make our most margin and when you spend £4,000 on a holiday you still want to go down the high-street and get advice.”
In comparison, only around 15%-16% of bookings taken online were for top-end bookings, he said. Web bookings made up 34.7% of sales in the six months to March 31.
“Having high-street distribution is very important if you want to have a strong, profitable tour operator in the UK,” he added.
Fontenla-Novoa admitted the company’s high-street shop network was likely to shrink over the next five years to below its current 800, but said the number was less important than the flexibility of shop leasing arrangements.
He said: “I don’t care how many [shops] there are as long as we have the flexibility in the model by the leases we take out; and customers will decide that. I suspect we will have about 700 shops [in five years’ time].”