European tour operating group TUI has relaunched its First Choice brand to appeal to travelers looking for more flexibility in putting together trips.
The revamped First Choice includes traditionally popular destinations such as Mykonos, Greece, and Ibiza, one of Spain's Balearic Islands, but will also offer additional ways to travel.
The tour operator has struck a partnership with Byway Travel to offer flight-free options to travelers such as train, boat and bus vacations that will be shown to customers as they search for flight-based trips.
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First Choice is the first mainstream brand to offer the options and Byway founder and CEO Cat Jones hopes other travel companies will follow suit.
“I founded Byway with the mission of making flight-free travel mainstream. For decades, choosing flight-free meant choosing masses of organization," Jones said. "Byway exists to make booking train, boat and bus-based holidays just as easy as flight-based packages. We're thrilled to be partnering with First Choice because it accelerates progress towards our mission, giving more people overland options and making the joy of the journey much more visible.”
A further new element on the platform is the introduction of a weather guarantee following a partnership with First Choice and Sensible Weather, and the tour operator said further partnerships, content and features are in the pipeline.
TUI Group chief executive Sebastian Ebel said earlier this year that dynamic packaging attracts new customers and will play a greater role for the company.
Bart Quinton Smith, managing director of First Choice, said the relaunch was about "helping people pick the things they – and everyone they’re traveling with – will love most on holiday."
He added that research reveals 40% of travelers suffer choice anxiety when booking a trip, with the average person devoting 53 hours to leisure travel planning every year.