founded 1965 ; 51 years ago 1965 founder roy thomson 1 headquarters luton england key people david burling ceo 2 products charter and scheduled passenger airlines package holidays cruise lines hotels and resorts services travel agency parent tui group website www.thomson.co.uk thomson holidays is a uk based travel operator and subsidiary of tui group . the thomson travel group was owned by the thomson corporation of canada until it was floated on the london stock exchange in 1998 . 3 the headquarters of thomson uk are in luton england . 4 the thomson brand as well as other tui owned travel operators is due to be phased out by 2018 . it will operate under the single tui name . 5 contents 1 history 2 thomson founders club 3 thomson cruises 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit a thomson travel agency in formby merseyside a thomson airways boeing 737 arriving at manchester england in 2013 the company originally named thomson tour operations tto and renamed in 1997 was founded as part of the thomson travel group in 1965 following the acquisition of four tour operators skytours riviera luxitours gaytours and the airline britannia airways by roy thomson . intense competition continued between the four acquired operators which allowed the rival clarksons travel group to become the lead player in the new and rapidly expanding uk package holiday market while thomson initially lacked any effective strategy to fight back . but in 1971 following the appointment of bryan llewellyn as tto s 7th managing director 6 a whole new board of directors was created with the travel trade veteran norman corkhill as company chairman . a clear strategy was now implemented as part of which the businesses were re branded and re launched under a single name as thomson holidays . thomson holidays soon hit the tv headlines with 3 and 4 night holidays in majorca for only 19 . its similar keenly priced products in the canaries and tunisia soon created spectacular growth in the winter sun market . clarksons were forced to stop trading under the intense marketing pressure followed a few years later by horizon holidays . other new products followed in rapid succession cruising with ss ithaca ; lakes mountains and fjords ; villas and apartments and wintersports city breaks . the combined success of the re branding new products real time reservations strong quality assurance and keen prices enabled thomson holidays to dominate the uk package holiday market for 25 years . in 1972 thomson acquired lunn poly the largest chain of travel agents in the united kingdom . the name lunn poly was kept until 2004 when the owners rebranded the highstreet outlets as thomson holidays in order to create a powerbrand . the company had insisted that there were no plans to rebrand lunn poly but the name is no longer used by the group . in recent years thomson holidays have been taking more of their business via the web but they retain a big share of the high street travel agency business . thomson travel group was floated on the london stock exchange in may 1998 with a valuation of 1.7 billion . 7 in 2000 ttg was acquired by preussag ag an industrial and transportation conglomerate . preussag was renamed tui ag on july 1 2002 and thomson travel became tui uk . thomson holidays thomson ski and thomson lakes and britannia airways rebranded thomsonfly now thomson airways after the merger with first choice airways are now subsidiaries of that group part of tui travel plc. they were sponsors of tottenham hotspur f.c. from 2002 2006 . in 1981 thomson holidays were the first recorded users of business to business online shopping . 8 on october 19th 1995 thomson launched their first internet site for their portland holidays brochure . thomson founders club edit when ttg was floated in 1998 new shareholders were given membership in the thomson founders club which offered a 10 % discount on thomson holidays . membership was conditional on retaining a minimum of 294 shares but when ttg was acquired by preussag membership of the founders club was made permanent and unconditional . however on 31 january 2008 the club was abolished without notice or compensation . 9 thomson cruises edit main article thomson cruises ms thomson celebration in alanya may 2011 thomson holidays also operates its own cruise line thomson cruises that offers cruises around europe with ships from louis cruise lines and holland america line . see also edit lunn poly polytechnic touring association references edit http www.kudoshops.com history of thomson holidays.html http press.thomson.co.uk sg cpt staff david burling quick profit for thomson fans the times tuesday 12 may 1998 ; pg . 29 ; issue 66199 luton . thomson uk . retrieved on 27 september 2009 . http www.bbc.co.uk news business 32731765 thomson holiday changes the times tuesday 24 june 1969 ; pg . 20 ; issue 57594 sfa launches thomson inquiry criticism prompts extension of perks for investors the times saturday 9 may 1998 ; pg . 27 ; issue 66199 1988 palmer c using it for competitive advantage at thomson holidays long range planning vol 21 p26 29 institute of strategic studies journal london pergamon press now elsevier b.v. december 1988 . original story at 1 thomson holidays thomson founder s club external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to thomson cruises . thomson holidays thomson holidays at youtube thomson ski thomson lakes tui ag thomson tailor made holidays v t e tui group travel thomson holidays hapag lloyd tui cruises first choice falcon holidays trek america exodus airlines corsair international jetairfly thomson airways tui airlines netherlands tuifly tuifly nordic sunwing airlines cruises tui cruises thomson cruises hapag lloyd kreuzfahrten hotels and resorts riu hotels robinson club grecotel grupotel iberotel magic life sol y mar puravida resorts sensimar hotels viverde aqi hotels dorfhotel gran resort hotels atlantica hotels former companies aladia airlines britannia airways first choice airways hapag lloyd hapag lloyd express island cruises jet4you lunn poly metrojet neos thomsonfly tui travel v t e tourism in the united kingdom tourism economy of the united kingdom nations and regions england hotels in england lists of tourist attractions in england list of national trust land in england list of national trust properties in england london tourist board resorts in england tourism in leeds tourism in london tourism in yorkshire visitengland welcome to yorkshire northern ireland hotels in northern ireland list of museums in northern ireland nature reserves in northern ireland list of tourist attractions in ireland list of national trust properties in northern ireland northern ireland tourist board scotland lanarkshire area tourism partnership minister for energy enterprise and tourism resorts in scotland scotlandwhisky scottish youth hostels association visitscotland visitscotland.com wales capital region tourism forgotten landscapes project list of museums in wales south west wales tourism partnership tourism partnership north wales visit wales companies current ace cultural tours alan rogers travel group carnival corporation & plc cunard line city sightseeing cosmos holidays cox & kings ebookers.com ffestiniog travel flight centre great rail journeys hays travel hogg robinson group holidaybreak nst holidayextras.com kuoni travel lastminute.com martin randall travel pgl superbreak swan hellenic thomas cook group club 18 30 netflights tui group thomson holidays trailfinders traveleyes turquoise holidays wilderness journeys defunct clarksons travel group court line directline holidays easycruise first choice horizon travel kiss flights lunn poly mark hammerton mytravel palmair thomas cook & son xl leisure group organisations camping and caravanning club the caravan club national trust for places of historic interest or natural beauty youth hostels association industry bodies association of british travel agents association of independent tour operators british resort inspection agency confederation of tourism and hospitality tourism concern visitbritain tourist destinations blue badge tourist guide holiday les routiers list of airlines of the united kingdom list of airports in the united kingdom and the british crown dependencies list of museums in the united kingdom list of amusement parks in the united kingdom list of past and present youth hostels in england and wales category commons retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title thomson holidays & oldid 738747253 categories tourism companiestravel and holiday companies of the united kingdomcompanies established in 1965cruise linesbritish brandscompanies based in lutonhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschfran aissvenska edit links this page was last modified on 10 september 2016 at 20 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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