TUI registers abundant bookings for the summer with the resumption of tourism

By Joanna Plucinska

LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) – Travel group TUI said on Tuesday it was seeing a positive trend in travel resuming for the upcoming summer season, buoyed by tourists’ plans to enjoy their post-pandemic holidays. .

Many feared recessionary pressures would dampen travel demand, but results from airlines such as Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet showed promising momentum and indicate consumers are preparing for their holidays.

TUI Group, one of the world’s biggest tour operators, said its first-quarter revenue reached 3.8 billion euros ($4 billion) thanks to promising winter and summer bookings, while its negative operating result was almost halved, to -158.7. million euros, against -274 million a year earlier.

The next bookings for the winter and summer seasons of 2023 reach 8.7 million.

Although European consumers are facing the highest levels of inflation in decades, holiday demand has so far held up. Budget airlines including Ryanair, Wizz Air and easyJet saw strong summer bookings earlier in the year.

Revenue increased by €1.4 billion to €3.8 billion year-on-year, with the hotel business registering growth of around one million customers to 3.3 million compared to the previous quarter.

According to TUI, demand over the past four weeks has also exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels, with prices increasing year-on-year.

The company’s Hotels and Resorts segment also posted an occupancy rate of 71% between October 2022 and March 2023, compared to 56% last year.

In addition, TUI shareholders are expected to vote on Tuesday on a capital increase plan to repay funding obtained from the German Economic Stabilization Fund.

(1 dollar = 0.9317 euros)

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska; editing by Himani Sarkar, Kim Coghill and Sherry Jacob-Phillips;