The fall of Thomas Cook has turned the tourism sector upside down. Are we at the dawn of a new era? ECONOMIC CURRENT, the economic supplement given every Monday with THE WORLD, addresses this issue and the answer is yes ... but less. “Traditionally,” explains one of the sources consulted, “it was the tour operators [like Thomas Cook] who opened, and even created, the destinations . They invested in them and somehow regulated the trips. They hired charter flights and hotel stays in advance, subjecting the entrances and exits of the latter to the dates of the former. Six or seven years ago, different large and medium European tour operators dominated 80% of all Spanish sun and beach destinations.

But the arrival of Ryanair allowed many clients to contract separately plane and hotel in medium-radio destinations. "We must bear in mind that three out of eight tourists visiting Spain are repeating, so they know the destination and do not need to organize anything."

The war is not, however, decided. Tourism is an activity that is, in itself, in permanent evolution. Thomas Cook's bankruptcy is another example of the market being highly competitive and demanding. Significantly, the selective London stock exchange, the FTSE 100, not only did not collapse following the news of its bankruptcy, but also gained 0.1% ... dragged by the rise of airlines and travel agencies . The competitors showed a remarkable good shape when they jumped on the body of their dean.

Everything remains the same? Not quite. In the new ecosystem, the niches have been redefined. While small agencies can work with different products and adapt quickly to changes, to Mastodontic supermarkets such as Thomas Cook, with its own airlines, hotels and hundreds of points of sale, they find it much more complex to follow the traces of the market.

But as the president of the Iberostar Miguel Fluxá hotel chain points out with stoicism in the interview that accompanies the report, you don't have to tear your clothes. In one way or another, with large tour operators or without them, tourism will continue. «People, if they want to go to a destination, will go and look for another way. Connectivity is vital for this. There is no despair, this is a business with a future ».

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  • Spain
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