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Greece becomes Thomas Cook’s top destination with 40% sales growth

Greece has become Thomas Cook’s top-selling destination, with 2.5 million passenger booked for this summer.

Chief executive Peter Fankhauser said Greece was up by 40% on last year and was its “single biggest selling destination so far”.

Bulgaria, Croatia and Portugal have also experienced double digit growth.

Cook has added 500,000 more beds to Greece, with average prices increasing by 2%.

Passenger bookings to Greece, which used to be Cook’s fifth biggest selling destination, represent the same volumes Cook was seeing to the destination before the Greek financial crisis.

Fankhauser said demand for the Spanish Islands, including the Balearics and the Canaries, has levelled off but prices have increased by up to 8%.

“We have not changed capacity in Spain but focused on higher quality holidays,” he said. “Hotels have increased their costs and (air) capacity has increased as well which gives a competitive situation.”

Thomas Cook yesterday confirmed it would stop selling Jet2holidays having served notice to the Leeds-based operator on Monday.

Fankhauser said Jet2holidays made up a “minimal” amount of overall bookings for the company and while the ending of the agreement means Jet2holidays packages will no longer be offered in any of Cook’s 790 shops, agent members of Cook’s consortium, Freedom Travel Group, are not affected and could continue selling the operator.

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