First Choice Holidays
First Choice Holidays plc was a British tour operator based in Crawley . This merged in 2007 with TUI's tourism division to form TUI Travel .
history
The tour operator was founded in 1973 and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1982 . In 1987, the company's own airline Air 2000 , now First Choice Airways , was founded, and in 1990 the specialist travel operator Redwing (Sovereign & Enterprise) was bought. In 1994 the group structure was rebuilt. In 2001, the cruise line Island Cruises was founded together with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line . At the beginning of 2007, First Choice Holidays merged with TUI and became TUI Travel. The merger to form TUI Travel plc was approved by the EU Commission on June 29, 2007. On July 25, 2007, First Choice Holidays shareholders approved the merger. The new TUI Travel plc shares were first traded on September 3, 2007 on the London Stock Exchange. TUI Travel plc is fully included in the consolidated financial statements of TUI AG.
The new TUI Travel will be headed by First Choice boss Peter Long as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). TUI boss Michael Frenzel is to become chairman or supervisory board chairman.
Corporate structure
In 2004 First Choice Holidays plc was organized in 4 sectors:
- Mainstream Holidays
- Activity Holidays
- Specialist Holidays
- Online Destination Services
First Choice Holidays carries over 80 brands with over 14,000 employees. The more than 8 million customers brought in 2006 a turnover of 2.715 billion £ (= 4.024 billion euros).