Reinforcing its path to becoming one global travel brand, the Hannover, Germany-headquartered TUI Group has launched what it says is the biggest branded content website in the tourism sector—travel.me—after gathering social media content from all of its brands worldwide. The online travel magazine includes posts from 600 social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, with some of the content still bearing the signature of the company’s former national brands.
“TUI’s brands range from airlines to cruises and from hotels to tour operators. Each of them has a genuine treasure of stories, now recovered through travel.me,” said Magnus Huttenberend, head of digital communications at TUI Group, in making the announcement, adding, “For the first time, we tie together the content of all brands under one digital roof – in line with our oneBrand strategy. Thanks to multiple content use, we have created the largest branded content portal in the tourism sector.”
Travel.me is available in English and German and content from the various channels is automatically fed into the system, reviewed with some content curated by editors, and subsequently put on the site. Users may directly like or share most content on travel.me without leaving the site. Further languages and channels and the incorporation of user-generated content and live feeds from special events are under development, said TUI. One can visit the English language site at:
https://www.travel.me/en/filter/Language:English/
The launch of a global website for a global brand is in keeping with TUI’s strategic direction implemented at the end of 2014, when the travel company merged with its parent company, TUI AG. Since then, the company has offloaded non-core businesses and has nearly completed the elimination of individual company and/or corporate brands. The last to go are the two UK brands, Thomson and First Choice.
Also, the company is currently reviewing bids from potential buyers of TUI’s collection of some 50 specialty brands, which currently operate under the Travelopia umbrella. The brands include such names as American Holidays, Citalia, Brightspark, Educatours, Gullivers Sports Travel, Grand American Adventures, and Hayes & Jarvis.
