WHEN DIFFERENT IS THE SAME

In a world full of business mergers and groups of companies it can often be easy to end up confused about whether there are indeed any small, successful independent companies that suit your needs. Quite often once you find one of these independent companies, consumer satisfaction and the overall experience on offer will be hard to surpass. The level of service is often much more personal and ethical concerns are often much more at the heart of operations.

Responsible travellers will stay in locally owned hotels that feed money directly into the local community; they will pay their commissions to local people that provide information; they will try to understand and interact with communities in an effort to learn, understand and experience.

For any information on small, independent operators that may be able to meet your needs please get in touch with us at Make Travel Fair. In the first of our 'when different is the same' blog series we will be listing all travel companies that fall under the umbrella of the TUI Group and First Choice Holidays PLC (prior to any merger of these two bodies).

All the information below has been sourced from the TUI GROUP website. If you feel there are more to add please comment on this post.

TUI GROUP

"Lots of quality and a promise - The TUI Group offers its customers holidays from a single source, from the initial booking and flight on a Group aircraft through to accommodation in a Group-owned hotel. This strategy of vertical integration makes it possible to cover the entire holiday chain in the source market and in the destination and to offer TUI customers seamless quality."

"Retail - There are approx. 3,200 Group-owned travel agencies in World of TUI."

Austravel
Budget Travelshop
touropa
Callers-Pegasus Travel Service

"Tour operators - TUI offers holidays in various countries through different tour operators. In addition to package holidays the product range includes individually selectable holiday components such as individual flights, hotel accommodation, excursions in the holiday area, car hire etc."

1-2-FLY
Budget Travel Ltd.
Crystal
Discount Travel
Headwater
Jetsave
Le Passage To India Tours & Travel Pvt. Ltd
Portland Direct

The list only contains companies relevant to the UK and Ireland in an effort to reduce numbers.

All the information below has been sourced from the FIRST CHOICE HOLIDAYS PLC website. If you feel there are more to add please comment on this post.

FIRST CHOICE

"We have structured our Group to ensure that we lead the way in offering our customers the leisure travel experiences they want and to leverage the strength of our brands to deliver sustainable profitable growth and shareholder value."

Mainstream Holidays:

First Choice Holidays
First Choice Airways
First Choice Travel Shops
Eclipse Direct
Suncars
Falcon
2wentys
Hays Travel
JWT Travel
Sunstart

Activity Holidays:

Sunsail Clubs
Sunsail Flotillas
Emerald Star
Adventure Center
Connoisseur
Crown Blue Line
Aventuria
Luxury Mountain
Flexiski
Travel Class
Travelbound
Skibound
Perigrine Adventures
Trek America
The Adventure Company
Let's Trek Australia
The Imaginative Traveller
Waymark
Exodus
My Planet

These are just a few of the companies that come under the First Choice Holidays PLC umbrella.