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Online Travel

Newly Agile Thomas Cook Is Resurrected in a Pandemic to Be an Online Travel Player

Matthew Parsons

Photo Credit: Jim Qian, chairman & CEO Fosun Tourism Group, speaking at a Skift Forum. Skift / Richard Lai

Skift Take

New owner Fosun will be banking on people fondly remembering this historic name, rather than reflecting on its spectacular collapse just one year ago.

Old meets new as a 179-year-old tour operator brand begins a new life as an online travel agency. The "old" Thomas Cook collapsed in September last year.  A lot of its high street retail network was snapped up by Hays Travel, while China's Fosun Tourism Group salvaged the rights to the bankrupt travel company’s brand for $14 million. Now, not only is Thomas Cook restarting in the UK with the launch on Wednesday of thomascook.com without the burden of that large network of travel agencies, or an airline in tow, but it’s also declaring itself a “Covid-ready” travel company.

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What does that mean exactly? And is such an historic name like Thomas Cook ready to do business in the middle of the second wave of a pandemic? Thomas Cook’s marketing team would probably argue: is the pandemic ready for Thomas Cook? It’s got it all figured out, you see. By “Covid-ready”, Cook has built in some unique features. A spokesperson told Skift it was a “mobile first” company. That’s debatab

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