J'ai mon voyage
March 12, 2010

Colin Hunter Comments
on the Sunwing - Signature Merger

When the founder and head honcho of Sunwing Group Colin Hunter comes to Montreal, it’s usually to do double duty: answer questions from reporters and stimulate his album sales, which gives him great pleasure. This means: taking the stage with his musicians and performing for his fans. “When I’m on stage, I can relax. And because
I have a very strong management team, I can take the time to do this,” stated Colin Hunter. Talking in Quebec for the first time since the Sunwing and Signature merger occurred, Colin Hunter answered our questions a short time before taking the stage Wednesday night.

Concurring that the season hasn’t been easy until now and that margins were a little weaker due to because, among other reasons, the Olympics and the heavy competition from Westjet Vacations and Air Canada Vacations, the businessman is optimistic about the future, what’s more, the merger is creating many new opportunities.

Commenting an article titled “Sunwing: La position de tête dans la mire'' published in Metro newspaper, the president and CEO makes a slight distinction. He said “It took us 5 years to get to where we are now and we were already number 2 in the market prior to the merger. Of course, we want to be the biggest and the best tour operator in Canada, but we’re not rushing into it.” Convinced of having the best business model, notably by operating its own fleet of aircrafts, Colin Hunter stipulates: “We expanded when we thought we could and we reigned in our sails when circumstances required it. For example, this winter we operated 12 planes instead of 14.”

Beyond the initial impacts announced about one month ago, what effect will this merger have on the profession in the short-term? Colin Hunter generously accepted to answer a few prickly questions.

JMV: How can the merger between Sunwing Group and TUI/First Choice /Signature Vacations benefit travel agents in Quebec?   

Colin Hunter: It’s too early to understand the scope of it all but it’s clear that, once combined, the two entities will have a lot more resources and consequently, travel agents and consumers will have greater product options to sell or to buy. TUI, the industry’s largest group worldwide, has more than 100 aircrafts that are the same model as our own; they also have cruise ships and significant hotel facilities. The most visible outcome for the moment is, for example, the ability to offer a France program with Corsairfly, A TUI company, and thus offer a more expansive program all year long. Another very important example is, in my opinion, the ability to offer agents and their clients, high quality products such as Riu Hotels. These hotels are highly sought out products elsewhere in Canada, and have not had much visibility here. We will soon be offering, as an exclusive, 16 Riu establishments, which should interest agents because, although they were offered by Thomas Cook, they had not been available in sufficient quantity until now. And this type of product sells well and sells early in the season. This merger also means that, since we have the support of a world-scale leader, we will no longer be the target of negative rumours in terms of our financial stability. 

JMV As for the merger with the discount brand Sell off Vacations, won’t it be more of an irritant to the Quebec distribution network?

C.H. First, Sell Off Vacations is in no way a key player in Quebec where there are already a lot of similar travel agencies. We were never very active in the field of distribution and we still don’t know how this aspect we inherited with the merger will evolve.   

JMV ACTA is leading a campaign for a commission system on the total price of travel packages, or in Quebec, to receive compensation for the work overload resulting from flight consolidations. What’s your view on this?

C.H. Concerning flight consolidations, this is an aspect involving our management team in Quebec. Agents need to understand that to be profitable, a tour operator must absolutely post a very high load factor. And that’s where the occasional necessity to consolidate flights comes into play. There are factors that require adjustments such as the Olympics for example, which led people to stay home rather than travel. This winter, we worked with 12 aircrafts rather than the usual 14. There was no mention of this to keep others from increasing their capacity in the market. As for the issue of total travel package prices, my opinion is that this question needs to be resolved through competitive actions, which means that if one of the players steps forward, the others will react. This is generally what happens in the industry. As for ourselves, we don’t talk about it with other operators.

Colin Hunter reaches into his pocket and takes out a CD, he grins and announces the official release of his 5th album March 28, in Toronto!

Friday, March 12, 2010 - 07:30