Why Club 18-30 is finally over

Club 18-30 holidays are to be scrapped after the brand’s owner Thomas Cook confirmed it would be wound up on 27 October.

The hedonistic holiday brand was founded in the 1960s to offer package holidays for young singles and couples who wanted to travel without families or children, says the BBC.

After a low-key start in the 1960s, the holidays became “notorious”, says the broadcaster, and famous for their “risqué advertising slogans”.

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Thomas Cook put Club 18-30 up for sale in the spring. But the company has now decided to axe the brand after offers “fell short of its expectations”, reports The Guardian.

“We are increasingly focused on our core own-brand hotel portfolio and feel that the Club 18-30 brand no longer fits in with our wider programme,” said Ingo Burmester, the tour operator’s UK chief executive.

“Having taken the summer to explore our options we have, in the absence of a viable alternative that makes sense for Thomas Cook or the brand, decided that Club 18-30 will close at the end of this season.”

The decision means that British holidaymakers booked to fly from Manchester to Magaluf on the island of Mallorca on 27 October will be on the last Club 18-30 trip.

The company says that the small number of permanent staff who work on the brand will be offered alternative roles, while the brand’s holiday reps were employed on seasonal contracts and could apply for other work next year.

The low-cost holidaymaker has suffered “a bruising period”, reports The Times. Shares in Thomas Cook fell sharply last month after the company warned that full-year profits would fall by 15% because this year’s record hot temperatures had deterred Brits from seeking last-minute beach breaks abroad.

Thomas Cook has already moved on from Club 18-30 with the recent launch of its “more upmarket” brand Cook’s Club, which is aimed at millennials, says the Guardian. The paper says that instead of “sex and sangria”, the adverts for Cook’s Club promise holidays where you can sample “a ‘melting pot of cultures’ and fill up on affordable ‘vegan delights’”.

The company plans to launch ten new Cook’s Club hotels in key destinations next summer.