In conversation with TUI managing director Arjan Kers

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 within travel?

Sports and opportunities
"I used to want to be a professional soccer player, my whole life was about soccer. But a knee injury shattered that dream, then I had no idea what to do. My eye fell on a new tourism course, the World Travel School. This landed me as a sports animator at a large hotel complex on Tenerife. Then I lived outside the Netherlands for another 24 years mostly in various places in Spain. After a start on the sports side I soon made moves to the commercial side of tourism. I became responsible for a number of TUI activities abroad, including hotel purchasing, eventually even 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 Netherlands was created from brands with a rich history - KRAS, Arke, Holland International - that over the years have given millions of Dutch people a great vacation. And that is still what drives me and brings me job satisfaction: working together with the passionate and knowledgeable team to make as many travelers as possible happy with a nice trip or vacation."

Everything in its own hands
"The big difference with other travel companies is that TUI has all travel elements in its own hands: a travel organization with its own airplanes, travel agencies, tour guides, local transportation and hundreds of its own hotels worldwide. This allows us to guarantee quality throughout the chain. When international travel came to a halt due to corona, we shifted gears very quickly and greatly expanded our offering domestically. It was rethinking how we could make people happy with a nice vacation in the Netherlands within the limited possibilities. And the moment the coronagraphs were relaxed or even lifted, we were immediately ready to take people to their favorite vacation destination abroad. Because even though many self-appointed gurus thought that travel would change for good, the moment the weather allowed, people went abroad en masse again with the destinations of Greece, Spain and Turkey leading the way. Hurricanes, an ash cloud or local attacks, the travel industry is always dealing with crises. Last summer, the lack of staff at Schiphol Airport had a huge impact. Canceling trips and depriving tens of thousands of customers of their vacation was not an option for us. Certainly not after two corona years in which there was little or no travel. We found a solution in moving part of our flight operation to Liège airport. It was a complex puzzle that required a lot of energy and flexibility from the staff. But we did manage to allow 99 percent of all those people who had already booked to go on vacation. Flying is the main mode of vacation transportation, but we are also looking at alternatives. We have been offering night train trips to a number of cities since last May in cooperation with the young startup GreenCityTrip. And starting this winter, the TUI Ski Express will run, a night train that takes you from Amsterdam and Utrecht directly to winter sports resorts in Austria."

MASTERS MAGAZINE

This interview is from the latest issue of MASTERS Magazine. Want to read more? Order the latest issue with guest editor-in-chief Jordi van den Bussche here.