Tui Travel, an international leisure travel group with its headquarters in Crawley, UK, has announced booking figures for the forthcoming holiday season that should spread optimism through the tourism market.
The company, which has the Thomson and First Choice holiday brands under its umbrella, announced today that the ‘very strong trading momentum’ that it has enjoyed in recent times is extending into the coming summer season. To add substance to the claim, it revealed that it has already experienced an increase of 9 percent on its bookings from the UK and Nordic region this year, and with higher margins than last year. The UK’s cumulative market has increased by four percent compared to last year.
Tui said that its winter program across all markets had benefited from improvements to margins and average selling prices, and that thanks to its business improvement program, winter losses would be reduced.
Unique holiday bookings in the UK, Nordics and Germany increased by 15 percent, 12 percent and 9 percent, year-on-year respectively for this coming summer, while direct distribution sales for the summer have been maintained at last year’s level of 90 percent in the UK.
Peter Long, Tui’s chief executive, commented, ‘We have a clear roadmap for growth built upon a deep understanding of our industry and customers. Our strong operational performance over winter means we will deliver reduced winter losses. This very strong trading has continued into Summer 2013, leaving us well placed to achieve a full-year performance towards the upper end of our growth targets.’
The company has sold 46 percent of its mainstream summer program to date, in line with expectations.
