Print Preview : Market research highlights high acceptance of the World of TUI master brand

Market research highlights high acceptance of the World of TUI master brand
The shareholders and shareholders` representatives attending the Preussag<.> AG annual general meeting on 26 June in Hannover will also be asked to vote on changing the name of the Group to TUI<.> AG. This step rounds off the repositioning of the Group from an industrial conglomerate to a tourism and services Group begun in 1997. It also means that the first Peoples share which was publicly quoted for the first time in 1959 will change into the first Holiday share. With the European-wide presence of World of TUI and the change of name to TUI AG, the aim is to clearly communicate to customers and the business and financial world the range of offers and structure of the Group.

An important milestone along this road was the presentation back in August 2001 of the World of TUI brand concept for all of the Group`s tourism companies. This master brand is a joint quality commitment and a shared sign for the 76 tourism tour operator brands belonging to the Group.

The first results of various representative market research analyses now confirm the increasing acceptance of the new brand and the undiminished high level of trust in the TUI brand with the highest levels of awareness. The results of a representative survey carried out for TUI as early as February 2002 - just four months after launching the brand - revealed that 42 per cent of people living in Germany knew of the new World of TUI logo - the symbolised red smile. Almost 40 per cent already linked it with travel. And the annual Readers Digest Trusted Brand survey, which asks around 32,000 readers throughout Europe the name of the travel brand with the highest levels of trust, placed TUI in number one position amongst German travel brands with a level of 56 per cent.
This score took into consideration quality, price-performance, image and the fulfilment of customer requirements. The British tour operator brand Thomson, which also belongs to World of TUI, also occupied the pole position in the survey and was well ahead of its competitors.

The results of the Exclusive Marken-Vierklang survey of the Stern magazine (F.U.R. travel analysis) published in April 2002, also confirm the already very high image value of TUI in Germany: with 92 per cent, the TUI brand again has the highest levels of awareness of the 20 German travel brands.

The name Touristik Union International (TUI) was created in 1968 by the merger of the leading tour operators Touropa, Scharnow-Reisen, Hummel Reise and Dr. Tigges-Fahrten. Other major tour operators were added in subsequent years, e.g. airtours in 1970. The wide spectrum of diverse brands dominated the company for over two decades until TUI Group was introduced as the master brand for the tour operator brands in 1999. The unsupported level of awareness of TUI rose within less than 10 years from around 30 per cent to over 90 per cent. The successful expansion in the European source markets of Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Poland, as well as in the destination countries, made TUI synonymous with quality holidays. The Preussag Group acquired the TUI brand in 1998. Theodore Koumelis - Friday, June 21, 2002