“Intourist” and British Tomas Cook establish a joint enterprise

One of the oldest Russian holdings “Intourist” will create a joint enterprise with one of European largest tour operators Thomas Cook Group, – informs the news agency RIA Novosti.

Controlling stake of the company will be owned by British company. “Intourist” gives to the enterprise a tour operator business and sales business (excluding hotel business), and the foreign company contributes $ 45 million. Under the agreement, Thomas Cook can purchase the remaining share of the enterprise in the next five years.

Operational management will remain under the jurisdiction of the team of “Intourist”, and Tomas Cook will gain control over the work of enterprise, management of which will report to CEO Thomas Duhring. The board of directors of the company will be led by Denis Wathier.

As the president of “Intourist” Alexander Arutyunov has noted: “The joint enterprise is another step in our strategy to enter the Top 10 of companies on the European tourist market. We are very pleased with the start of joint work with Thomas Cook, one of the global leaders in tour operating, as the next stage of our development”.

“We are pleased to announce our partnership with “Intourist” and entry the Russian market. Thomas Cook and “Intourist” are strong tourist brands with a long history, perfectly complementary to each other. Russian market entry is an implementation of our stated goal of development in this region with strong potential for sustained growth”, – emphases the General Director of Tomas Cook Manny Fontenla-Novoa.

“Intourist” is the oldest Russian travel company, founded in 1929. Initially, its main task was to develop entry tourism, now the company successfully operates in all segments of the industry.

Retail chain “Intourist” consists of 143 agencies throughout Russia and a number of partner outlets.

“Intourist” is one of the largest travel companies in market and leader in serving foreign tourists in Russia.

Tomas Cook was founded in 2007 with the merger of the British company My Travel and German Tomas Cook. Now it is one of European largest tourist companies. It has offices in five geographic regions in twenty-one countries.

Company's retail chain has more than three thousand of its own and franchised agencies and its airpark consist of 94 aircrafts.