Lunn Poly was the largest chain of
travel agents in the
United Kingdom. The company originated from two successful travel agencies which had been established in 1890s; The Polytechnic Touring Association and
Sir Henry Lunn Travel. Both firms were acquired in the 1950s by the British Eagle Group, and combined into Lunn Poly during 1965. In June 1971, Sunair bought Lunn Poly from the Transport Holding Company for £175,000. The next year, the company became part of
Thomson Travel Group, which increased the number of shops from less than 30 to nearly 500 by 1990. It is now owned by TUI Northern Europe, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate
TUI AG.
When TUI UK rebranded Britannia Airways as Thomsonfly in November 2003, the company insisted that there were no plans to rebrand Lunn Poly. On 2 November 2004, however, the announcement was made that Lunn Poly was to be rebranded as Thomson in order to create a "powerbrand". TUI UK announced that all 780 Lunn Poly shops in the United Kingdom would be renamed to Thomson before the peak holiday booking period started on 26 December 2004.
Lunn Poly was famous for a long-running advertising campaign on television. These commercials featured people looking into what holidays the company offered. Another person would then say to them "Lunn Poly? Get away", at which point the person would disappeared into thin air and end up at a vacation spot. One of these involved an ancient Greek building, with two support pillars talking. When one said "Get away!", the other one disappeared only for the building to collapse. In 1993 a Christmas themed advert was screened featuring two snowmen while the snow was falling. This ran for the following four months into April 1994.
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