The world’s largest travel group Tui is expecting a strong travel summer despite the extreme heat and forest fires on the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean remains the most popular destination for summer vacations, said CEO Sebastian Ebel when presenting the balance sheet for the past quarter on Wednesday. Summer bookings are currently six percent higher than a year ago. Customers spend an average of seven percent more on their trips.
With 12.5 million customers to date, bookings are 95 percent of the pre-pandemic summer 2019 level. The forest fires in southern Europe only briefly dampened the development.
“We had and still have a consistently good level of bookings,” said Ebel. This also applies to the coming winter. With a view to the fires on the Greek island of Rhodes, Ebel spoke of a “significant disruption”. The majority of Tui customers on Rhodes were not affected. However, with around five percent of the summer program, the island is of great importance. Overall, the fires there would have cost the company around 25 million euros, in particular due to repatriation flights, accommodation in other accommodation and cancellations.
When asked about the risks of climate change, Ebel also described opportunities for the travel business. “I have no doubts that the seasons will even out, which is good for us.” In addition, travel destinations such as Portugal, Belgium or Holland could become more important, which offers additional growth potential. Tui plans to expand climate-neutral hotels because of climate change.
During the pandemic, Tui had received billions in aid from the German state. For the first time since this crisis, the group achieved an operating profit before special effects (adjusted EBIT) of 169 million euros in the months of April to June. In addition to more bookings, higher prices also contributed to this. Compared to the same period last year, sales rose by 19 percent to 5.3 billion euros. The bottom line is that the Tui shareholders made a profit of almost 23 million euros. In the current fiscal year (until the end of September), the adjusted operating profit should again significantly exceed the previous year’s figure of 409 million euros.
See in the gallery: A heat wave is sweeping Europe, with no end in sight. But there are also places where temperatures are pleasant.
