Steeve Van de Putte. Representative of Thomas Cook in Cuba

godking
09 October 2003 6:00am
Steeve Van de Putte. Representative of Thomas Cook in Cuba

Q. What major activities does Thomas Cook carry out in Cuba as a travel group?

A. Thomas Cook, with over 160 years of experience under its belt, is the world’s number-one tourist group. It deals with those services travelers might need, ranging from access to travel agencies, tour packages and airlines to onboard and on-the-ground services and guides providing all the information they might need. Each and every destination has its own organization, and in this sense, I represent the Cuban destination.

All around the world, Thomas Cook has an entrepreneurial identity of its own that surfaces in its corporate image and the top quality services it provides to over 13.2 million customers worldwide.

Q. Is this group linked to other Cuban or foreign entities?

A. Thomas Cook’s shareholders are Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Karstadt Quelle AG. Here in Cuba, Thomas Cook is represented by Iberoservice, the company that deals with all legal paperwork related to this travel agency.

Q. What are the main destinations sold by Thomas Cook and what does the Cuban destination mean to this company?

A. The major destinations for our company in Europe are Mallorca, Tenerife, Grand Canary, Tunisia, Crete and Turkey. As far as the far-off destinations are concerned, we deal with Germany during the high-peak season that matches wintertime in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Thailand.

The top destinations in Cuba are Varadero, Holguin, Havana, Cayo Coco and Santiago de Cuba. Here, Thomas Cook handles 1,200 tourists every week in the summer and as many as 1,400 weekly trekkers during the winter.

The main tourist senders are Germany, Austria, Canada and the U.K., by far the big wintertime heavyweights. On the other hand, Belgium, Holland and France are the main strongholds in the summer months. This allows the tourist flow to run steadily all year round and we expect these numbers to remain on the rise in coming years.

Q. Let’s talk about Thomas Cook’s good results.

A. We handle tourists year in and year out, always with good growth prospects in the works. We grabbed the award to the Best Tour Operator in 2002 and 2003, presented to us at the Cuban Tourism Convention. We also won the award to the Best Airline in that same event, Cuba’s number-one tourism convention.

Q. Any projects for your group in Cuba?

A. We want to beef up our structure, make it stronger and stronger with each passing day. Of course, with the help of Iberoservice and Cubatur. At the same time, we put out all the stops to keep good quality up all across the country, and we stick to that same policy in all those country we have representations in. That helps us give travelers all the conveniences they need, from tours, car rentals and hotels to round-the-clock customer services.

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