Q&A: Thomas Doering

Owned by Lufthansa German airlines and a big German retail conglomerate, the Thomas Cook of today is a much changed company primarily extending travel and financial services to European consumers – but it has retained a strong image in the local market and even a few employees who remember working in Beirut in 1984. EXECUTIVE talked to Thomas Doering, senior vice president for corporate development, about the company’s objectives in reopening their offices. You want to operate inbound and outbound travel and related services in Lebanon. What is the first item on your agenda? We have a two-phased approach. The first phase is to open offices and establish our infrastructure in Lebanon. This is what we have just done. With this, we want to establish ourselves as a travel company to the local people. This is our first objective. In phase two, we like to invest to get people into