Virgin group relaunches Web site

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.