Tui Group chief executive Sebastian Ebel said global travel demand was “robust”, but agreed there had been some reluctance to book from families earlier this year.
Ebel said the lower end of the family market was “where there could be some signs that it is more challenging”.
Destinations like Bulgaria, Tunisia and Egypt were proving cheaper alternatives to the western Mediterranean, according to Ebel, who added: “Customers who have a budget will get something, maybe a different destination but the same quality of product.”
Ebel confirmed summer trading in the past 10 days had been strong, but noted: “Booking momentum normally starts after Easter. In a lot of markets revenue comes back after May 1.”
Turkey ’more expensive’
Ebel also warned Turkey was becoming more expensive and would be strong in lates.
“Turkey is stable, but we don’t see the growth we’ve seen before. Its main reason is high inflation; the devaluation of the currency is very limited and therefore it has become significantly more expensive," he said.
"We can’t change the currency, but we can work hard with our hoteliers to get good offers and therefore I would assume there will be a strong last-minute business for Turkey. I think there’s more to come.”
Tui has taken a cautious approach to summer 2025, using low-risk dynamic packaging. “What’s important is that we didn’t grow the risk capacity and instead put a lot of effort into growing the dynamic product,” he said.
Tui believes this will allow it to claw back market share lost to market leader Jet2. Ebel said there was “no clear market share figure available”.
Ebel added: “I would assume that for the first time we are gaining market share. When we presented first quarter, summer was minus 2% in the UK, now (at the end of Q2) we are at zero, today it’s positive.”
He said dynamic packaging would have more of an impact in the next quarter. “The more content we add, the bigger the growth will be. It has been higher than the growth I have seen in this segment from competitors.”
Sales using Tui’s app had grown 40% year on year, amounting to 9.5% of total, with “the UK especially” having “huge momentum”.
In Q2, dynamic packaging using airlines like Ryanair accounted for 400,000 of Tui’s 2.6 million global sales. Ebel said more airline and hotel partners “are coming in the next couple of weeks and months” and would “change the picture for Tui”. He mentioned an expanded partnership with Oman Air to supply holiday content for its flights under the Tui brand.
Tui’s group loss for the six months to the end of March improved from minus €182.7 million (£153.8 million) last year to minus €155.9 million (£131.3 million). However it said it was on course for a full year profits increase of 7-10%.
