TUI: Surge in Summer Bookings, Most Popular Destinations Include Spain and Greece
TUI on Wednesday said the Group’s summer 2023 booking trends remain strong with 8.3 million bookings to date.
According to data released during the presentation of the company’s second financial quarter results, since the last update as part of the Q1 2023 figures, 3.6 million bookings have been added.
Currently, 55 percent of TUI’s summer programme has been sold, which is 2 percentage points higher than at the same point in time for summer 2022 and broadly in line with summer 2019.
Overall, bookings for summer 2023 are 13 percent higher than last year and at 96 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Booking momentum has remained strong in the last six weeks and is 6 percent higher than summer 2019.
Moreover, TUI’s average prices for summer 2023 have increased since the last update and are now 5 percent above last year. On a like-for-like basis, average prices are 8 percent higher, excluding rebookings for summer 2022 from previous seasons. Compared to summer 2019, average prices are 26 percent higher.
Destinations in the lead this summer
The most popular destinations for TUI guests include Spain, Greece and Turkey.
The UK market continues to be the most advanced market with 64 percent of the programme sold. Bookings are in line with the previous season and are 10 percent above pre-pandemic levels with higher average prices.
Given recent positive booking trends, TUI executives are confident that capacity for summer 2023 will be close to normalised summer 2019 levels.
CEO: Our goal is to return to our former strength and profitable growth
Along with a strong summer in 2023, TUI also expects a significant year-on-year increase in operating profit for the full year.
“We have significantly increased our results in the second quarter, the completed winter season has developed in line with our expectations with good prices,” TUI Group CEO Sebastian Ebel said.
According to data presented on Wednesday, TUI Group’s revenue climbed by around one billion euros year-on-year to 3.2 billion euros in Q2 2023 (January to March). Underlying Group EBIT improved significantly by 88 million euros to -242 million euros in the seasonally weaker second financial quarter. The number of customers travelling with TUI in the period under review rose to 2.4 million.
“We expect a strong summer and a good 2023 financial year with significantly higher operating profit… We want to return to our former strength,” Ebel said, adding that TUI has repaid the aid from the German Economic Stabilisation Fund (WSF) and now “gearing everything towards profitable growth”.
A leading global tourism company, TUI Group is headquartered in Germany and operates worldwide. Its portfolio of services include 400 hotels and resorts with premium brands; 16 cruise ships; leading tour operator brands and online marketing platforms across Europe; five airlines with more than 130 modern medium and long-haul aircraft; and around 1,200 travel agencies.