Economic recovery is helping Thomas Cook, while the perception is that some of Europe’s key destinations are no longer making the wrong kind of headlines, according to chief executive Harriet Green.
In a business section interview in the Mail on Sunday, Green said: “We’re seeing a resurgence of Greece and Spain.
“Turkey’s strong. Tunisia is coming back. Of course it’s always susceptible to problems.
“I do have family members right now in Egypt, and we have such fabulous properties. You’re always going to be affected if there are challenges is some countries.”
Described in the profile as being “without doubt hard as nails”, she revealed how she mystery-shopped Cook aircraft and hotels before taking over in 2012 to turn around the business – and still does.
“Also, I’ve encouraged all of my senior team and pretty much all of our advisors not only to vacation with Thomas Cook but to tell me their experience,” she said.
“Absolutely everyone and anyone gets to comment when you run a business like Thomas Cook, which is nice I suppose, but there’s nowhere to hide.
“You certainly get feedback including my own family members, who are all vacationing and travelling with Thomas Cook now. They give me chapter and verse on what they had for dinner and why it was better than what they had for lunch.”
Green revealed that she is training to take part in Ride London, a 100-mile London to Surrey cycle challenge in aid of the Thomas Cook Children’s Charity.
“I train from 5.30 to 6.30 every morning except one. Because I’m doing it for Thomas Cook I can’t fail,” Green said. “I can’t get to 70 miles and say I’ve had enough. I don’t know why I put this much pressure on myself, it’s so hard.
“We do everything from outdoor exercise to the gym doing a lot of kettleball work to build my upper body strength,” adding that her trainer is an ex-Marine.