Arjan Kers, who has been working at TUI since 1997 in various managerial positions (mainly abroad), started working as director of Kras in Ammerzoden in September 2014. In his first interview in his new position at Travelpro, he talked about his personal and business worries at the time. Nine years later, Kers, now general manager of TUI Netherlands, looks back on his statements at the time. In the anniversary edition of the Top 50, which has just been published, he tells his story. Kers is still not lacking in enthusiasm. During a lunch at the head office in Rijswijk, with a croquette sandwich and a packet of buttermilk, he talks extensively about his childhood and what brought him to the travel world. At the age of 19, he wanted to become a professional footballer, or at least a sports teacher. He played football at O.N.A. (Recreatie Na Arbeid) in Gouda. A number of injuries put a stop to his sporting ambitions. He started a tourism education at the World Travel School. In the second year, in 1990, he saw an advertisement from a tour operator who was looking for a sports animator for a hotel TenBel in Tenerife. It was the beginning of his long tourist career abroad, in which he held various positions in 24 years. Kers, just 21, came into contact with the then well-known names from the travel world, such as Ruud de Vroom of Evenementens Reizen. ‘Dennis Janssen, then director of product at D-Tours / Eevenementsreizen and a business partner of Ruud, said to me: ‘Maybe one day it will work out with you in tourism. Later, I reminisced with Ruud, that as an adventurer you leave the Netherlands to go abroad.’ It was a time when friendships and business relationships for life were formed. In 1999, Kers ended up as a manager at 1-2 FLY GmbH, part of TUI and the rising star in the travel industry in Germany. “Within 4 to 5 years, we had 700,000 passengers and something like 50 family and children’s clubs.” The label was discontinued when TUI decided to continue with one brand in all markets. In addition to TUI, the Kras brand initially continued to exist in the Netherlands, where Kers took over as director in 2014. Did you ever foresee that you would become general manager of TUI Netherlands? No, it was already a big step for me to come back to the Netherlands. I had never worked for a travel company in the Netherlands before. I had a nice position within TUI internationally and was responsible for purchasing worldwide. I was on the road a lot and sat at the negotiating table with many hotel partners. That was my passion, I loved it. As a result, I still know many destinations and hotels inside and out.’ Then you learn what to look out for when you step into a hotel? “Hotels want to show their best side, but you also have to look at the details. When I walk into a hotel reception, I first look at how we are represented there. I look at the information books for the customers, although that is becoming more and more digital. And I check if the toilet next to the reception is clean. I’m critical. I don’t think you should please a hotelier because he pampers you. If I’m walking through the hotel with a manager like that and there’s a piece of paper or a cup on the floor somewhere, I pick it up. They don’t see that anymore, but I want to set a good example. And that’s how you keep people on their toes.’ Let’s go back to the moment when you stepped into the head office in Rijswijk 9 years ago as the new boss of TUI Netherlands. What kind of TUI did you find and what kind of TUI has it become now? “That’s a good question. Under my predecessors Steven van der Heijden, Gerrit Slot and Reinhard Will, then the Board of Directors in the Netherlands, many changes had been initiated, Gerrit did Kras. I learned a lot from him in the first few months. I was allowed to shadow him for two months before he left. I just sat next to him and listened. I thought it was important to first listen to someone with so much experience.’ ‘Steven van der Heijden had just left, but I noticed that there was a Board of Directors atmosphere. The management was on the third (and top) floor. My first step was to sit on the first one so that I was more visible. That took some getting used to for some people. I still spend a lot of time every day interacting with people, walking around for an hour in the morning and afternoon, to engage in conversation and to convey my vision. The previous Board of Directors had made a U-turn from negative to positive figures. Then you enter the next phase in which you want to accelerate growth. A lot of people have helped with that.’ What is your management style? ‘It’s important that you do it together as a team. Maybe that’s something from my football past. I was the striker right winger, but without a good goalkeeper or a good last man you are nowhere. Over the past 9 years, TUI Netherlands has consistently shown an upward trend. We have made more speed towards the market, made choices regarding the distribution policy, we have done fantastic marketing campaigns and made Arke and Holland International one TUI brand. Many colleagues from various departments have contributed to achieving where we are today. The fact that we are now a consolidated market leader, I think that’s a success.”
Have you changed as a manager in those almost 10 years? “Definitely, very much so. I think I was quite an aggressive buyer during my purchasing period. I played the game, but I could also tear up the contract at a certain point during negotiations with a hotel partner and walk away. But then you have to be able to come back, look each other in the eye and start the negotiation again. I’ve learned over the past few years to be a little more patient. At the same time, I have developed an elephant’s skin over the years and I can take a beating.’
What has changed in your leadership?” I notice that the younger generation expects a different kind of leadership. Above all, you have to remain clear and indicate the direction, especially in the corona crisis that we have had. For example, I thought it was very important to be here at the head office every day, even though I was alone in the building and despite the obligation that everyone had to work from home. By being here, I wanted to show that I believed we would get out of it. I wanted to show that as captain I would not leave ship.” How autonomous are you within TUI Group? ‘We have always followed the group strategy, but within our own frameworks, say freedom within a framework. This was possible because we have achieved a good result in the Netherlands in recent years. We have started to cluster more with Belgium, have made it much more of a Benelux organisation. This has greatly strengthened us in both markets and improved our competitive position. Bringing the Netherlands and Belgium together was quite difficult in the beginning. But it is one of the most successful steps we have made as an organization, despite the fact that we have a different business model in both countries. In the Netherlands we are very package holiday driven, in Belgium we are more flight only. We’re more of an airline there, while in the Netherlands we’re more of a tour operator.’ How dependent are travel agents on such a TUI package holiday? And vice versa? ‘Of course, the travel agent has the freedom to make their own choices, no one obliges them to work with TUI. Rather, it’s the other way around; We have a product and we offer to sell it to them. Nothing has changed since I arrived. We could make the decision today to go for 100 percent in-house distribution. We are now at a level where we could also do the last part that is sold through partner retail ourselves. I’m very honest about that.’ How big is that percentage? ‘We are now almost at 80 percent of our own distribution. That’s online, our own travel agencies, our ZRAs from TUI at Home, and the customer services center.’ And 20 percent is third-party retail? ‘The partner retail part is divided between ZRAs, travel agents and online travel agents, or OTAs. Some will need our product more than others. Some have developed their own products. But the basis of air travel is in the flight, which is essential and we should not forget. There are three leisure companies that largely cover the offer to all holiday destinations. The largest is Transavia, with which we also have a broad collaboration. Then you have TUI fly, we do almost everything with our own flights. And then you have Corendon, which also uses its own devices at a number of destinations. For the rest, everyone is dependent on the same companies to get the customer to their destination.’ So flight capacity is important? ‘If a reduction is implemented in the coming years, it will apply to Corendon as well as to TUI and Transavia. There will then be fewer seats available, so that we will ultimately be able to put less capacity on the market. Then it may also be the case that we say: we can also sell that ourselves. Look, I just always want to keep open the possibility that we can still leave that 20 percent to the retail partner, but these retailers will have to decide for themselves whether they want to continue to sell TUI on the side.’ Why don’t you do that? TUI is not a charitable institution after all. So apparently there is added value in this third-party retail. ‘We are certainly not a charitable institution. But there are travel agents whose parents already had a relationship with Holland International. That was the last major brand that has always vouched for the travel agent. I recently visited a few travel agencies in the east of the country and often see the owner sitting behind the counter himself. I’m a huge retail believer and love to see how passionate people are. There is a lot of knowledge and experience there. Unburdening the customer has become even more important after corona. I think it’s important that a customer has the opportunity to book the TUI product with a local travel agent with whom he has a good relationship.’ That’s also a matter of getting used to, right? ‘Then I would oblige customers to book through a TUI channel. I don’t think that’s necessary. I think there are still a lot of customers who say: I want to go to my regular travel agent, for example at Juan Vazquez in Borne, with whom I was recently. His regular customers have confidence in Juan. I once said during corona: the travel agent is going to come out of this stronger. And I think that’s what happened.’ Read the full interview with Arjan Kers in the recently published edition of the Top 50, which recently landed on the doormat of subscribers. Or read the digital edition of the Top 50: Back to the Future. And read the new list of the 50 largest travel companies. This one has a new top three after years. In addition, many newcomers, not only in the Top 50, but also in the sublists of largest tour operators and retailers. Order the new edition of
the special Top 50 issue of TravMagazine.
Photo above: two almost identical photos by Arjan Kers, with a nine-year time difference. Left in 2014, right in 2023. The same backpack with which he once left the Netherlands, the same jacket from back then and the same shirt.
