Redknapp ads boost Thomas Cook sales

Television advertising featuring ex-Liverpool and Tottenham footballer Jamie Redknapp and his wife Louise, the former pop star, frolicking at a sun-drenched resort was credited with helping generate robust summer bookings for holiday firm Thomas Cook. The tour operator told the City that the ads had boosted demand during the peak sales spell in late January. Chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: "In recent weeks, bookings for the summer 2010 season have improved significantly, marking a positive response to our current marketing campaigns and highlighting the resilience of the summer holiday." The surge in bookings is welcome news for the company after poor weather in early January, particularly in the UK, led to a slow start to the traditionally busy trading period. Bookings from British holiday-makers jumped 15% in the last four weeks, when compared with the same period in 2009. The Redknapp-credited sales fillip may also bolster the celebrity couple's marketability after it emerged last month that Icon, the glossy magazine for the super-rich which they founded, was in financial difficulty . The loss-making magazine carried features on luxury lifestyles, focusing on topics such as premium property, travel and fine wines. It was reported last month that subscribers had not received the latest edition and that the business was the subject of several court claims brought by creditors. The Redknapps are minority shareholders, and said to be no longer involved with running the magazine. Thomas Cook and rival tour group Tui Travel — both the product of mega-mergers in 2007 — have led industry moves to slash the number of package holidays on sale each year. Their actions, combined with the collapse of smaller operators such as XL Leisure and Globespan, have led to a steep reduction in the number of summer holidays on offer to UK consumers in recent years. This has allowed Thomas Cook and Tui to rapidly rebuild profitability, reducing exposure to low-margin package deals to destinations such as the Spanish Costas, and focusing on more lucrative, higher-priced business where competition from low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet is less fierce. Thomas Cook is cutting the number of summer holidays it is selling to UK customers this year by 3%, taking capacity to 17% less than 2007 levels. In continental Europe the group raised has raised its summer holiday capacity by 8%. The update on summer booking trends came as Thomas Cook reported a first-quarter operating loss of £41m, compared with a loss of £27m last year. The company said that operating cash outflow was "broadly in line with last year" despite capacity reductions.