MASTERS often talks to prominent figures from the business world. This time with Arjan Kers, Managing Director TUI Netherlands. About entrepreneurship, sports and travel, among other things. What drives this businessman, how does he see the future of the travel industry and how does he view sustainability in travel?
Sports and opportunities
“I used to want to be a professional footballer, my whole life was about football. But that dream shattered due to a knee injury, and I then had no idea what to do. My eye fell on a new tourism course, the World Travel School. This brought me to work as a sports animator at a large hotel complex in Tenerife. I then lived outside the Netherlands for another 24 years, mostly in various places in Spain. After starting on the sporting side, I quickly moved towards the commercial side of tourism. I became responsible for a number of TUI activities abroad, including hotel purchasing, and eventually for the entire TUI Group. In 2014 I was asked to return to the Netherlands and lead TUI Netherlands. TUI means a lot to me as a company and as a brand. TUI Nederland originated from brands with a rich history – KRAS, Arke, Holland International – that have provided millions of Dutch people with a wonderful holiday over the years. And that is still what drives me and brings me job satisfaction: together with the driven and skilled team, to make as many travelers as possible happy with a wonderful trip or holiday.”
Everything in your own hands
“The big difference with other travel organizations is that TUI has all travel components under its own control: a travel organization with its own aircraft, travel agencies, tour guides, local transport and hundreds of hotels worldwide. This way we can guarantee quality throughout the entire chain. When international travel came to a standstill due to corona, we acted very quickly and significantly expanded our offering in our own country. It was a matter of thinking about how we could make people happy with a nice holiday in the Netherlands within the limited possibilities. And when the corona measures were relaxed or even lifted, we were immediately ready to take people to their favorite foreign holiday destination. Because even though many self-proclaimed gurus thought that travel would change permanently, as soon as it was possible again, people went abroad again in droves, with the destinations Greece, Spain and Turkey as the frontrunners. Hurricanes, an ash cloud or local attacks, the travel world always has to deal with crises. Last summer, the lack of staff at Schiphol had a huge impact. Canceling trips and depriving tens of thousands of customers of their holidays was not an option for us. Certainly not after two corona years in which there was little or no travel. We have found a solution in moving part of our flight operations to Liège airport. It was a complex puzzle that required a lot of energy and flexibility from the employees. But we did manage to get 99 percent of all those people who had already booked to go on holiday. Flying is the main mode of holiday transport, but we also look at alternatives. In collaboration with the young startup GreenCityTrip, we have been offering a number of cities by night train since last May. And from this winter, the TUI Ski Express will start running, a night train that takes you directly from Amsterdam and Utrecht to the winter sports areas in Austria.”
This interview is from the latest edition of MASTERS Magazine. Read more? Purchase here the latest issue with guest editor-in-chief Jordi van den Bussche.
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