Thomson to sponsor TV show

THOMSON Holidays is planning to sponsor a television programme, following in the footsteps of First Choice’s two-week sponsorship of ITV’s show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.

TUI UK marketing director Hugh Edwards confirmed the operator was looking into “broadcast sponsorship with a show that fits with the brand” but declined to give specific details or timescales.

However, it is understood the operator would be interested in sponsoring a comedy or light entertainment programme that would allow it to leverage the TUI smile brand.

First Choice’s sponsorship of I’m A Celebrity… was hailed a “huge success”, with chief executive Peter Long claiming an “amazing” impact of the brand on 11 million viewers (Travel Weekly March 15).

Thomson signalled its intention to overhaul its image to make package holidays appear “sexy” and promote the Thomson name at popular non-travel events, such as music festivals, 18 months ago (Travel Weekly October 28 2002).

Existing sponsorship deals include Premiership football club Tottenham Hotspur, ice hockey side Cardiff Devils and 50-metre freestyle swimming world champion Mark Foster.

Meanwhile, Lunn Poly is to trial levels of Internet access across its network over the coming months before rolling the technology out to shops this year.

Some shops have already been given access to the websites of the no-frills carriers to test demand and use of the sites. No-frills flights under £99 are subject to a £10 booking fee.

TUI UK director of retail sales and operations Miles Morgan said agents could be given access to the no-frills websites to book on behalf of customers “if it is cost effective”.

He stressed staff would receive training to use the Internet sites to which they were given access. It is likely to be restricted rather than full Internet access and will not be broadband.

Morgan said Lunn Poly had taken up to 2.5 percentage points in market share from its competitors.

He added its project to give managers more power to run their shops was proving a success.