The package holiday operator Tui Group has enjoyed strong Easter bookings to sunshine destinations including the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean, and expects a strong summer season as travel approaches pre-Covid levels.
Turkey, the Balearic islands, mainland Spain, Greece and Egypt which offer “guaranteed sun” at this time of year have also been in demand with UK and German travellers, said the German-based company. It is one of the world’s biggest tourism groups, and owns planes, hotels and cruise ships.
More than 500,000 people are heading on holiday with Tui over Easter, the company said, and its load factor (a measure of how full its planes are) is expected to be 95%, similar to pre-pandemic levels.
Sebastian Ebel, the chief executive, said: “Booking momentum remains encouraging, and the travel trends and strong demand for the Easter holidays are a healthy signal for the upcoming summer.
“Based on trends to date, we continue to anticipate capacity to be close to pre-pandemic levels. We expect a good summer 2023.”
Shares in Tui jumped 10% after the update, making it the top riser on the FTSE 250.
Despite the cost of living crisis, people are keen to travel, and the company has recorded a “significant increase in booking momentum” since the start of the year.
In the UK and Germany, bookings surged to record levels on several days, and in the four weeks to 5 February, bookings were about 10% higher than 2019 levels. The company has also increased its prices.
Tui cited studies showing that many people do not want to give up holidays despite economic uncertainty. However, customers continue to book at shorter notice and prefer package holidays and all-inclusive offers, which allows them to budget better.
The travel and tourism sector has been slowly recovering from the pandemic, which brought international travel to an abrupt halt when governments imposed travel bans and restrictions to try to stop the spread of the virus. Demand started to recover last year, but severe staff shortages led to travel chaos at several UK and European airports last Easter and in the summer, with tens of thousands of flight cancellations and long delays.
In recent weeks, strikes in France, Germany and the UK have caused air travel disruption. British Airways has cancelled 300 flights, mostly to Europe, with security staff at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on strike until Easter Sunday. In Portugal, holidaymakers face delays on entering the country as immigration officials took to the picket lines on Thursday for five days of industrial action.
