THOMAS COOK TO ENTER WAL-MART
By Adnews Staff
The Thomas Cook Group (Canada) of Mississauga, Ont. is putting its Marlin Travel agencies in Wal-Mart stores across Canada. The company recently bought Tour Mart Travel, which already has branches in nine Ontario Wal-Mart stores. These branches will be converted Marlin Travel agencies, while Thomas Cook will open another three in Ontario and another 12 across Canada by the end of 1998. Thomas Cook travel related businesses senior vice-president Gary Gaudry told Adnews the company chose Wal-Mart because it has heavy walk-by traffic. For the time being, Thomas Cook will rely on this traffic to promote the branches. Once it opens more outlets it will launch an advertising and PR campaign. Advertising for Thomas Cook is handled in-house. Thomas Cook is a leisure retail travel company with 270 Thomas Cook and Marlin Travel agencies across Canada.