TUI customers prefer sunny destinations

For many people in Europe, the Easter holidays are the first opportunity to take a longer holiday and travel. TUI customers are now particularly attracted to destinations around the Mediterranean as well as the Canary Islands, which are top holiday destinations for the UK and German market.

Turkey, the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, Egypt which offer guaranteed sun during this travel season and Greece also top the scale. More than 500,000 customers will be holidaying with TUI over Easter, with occupancy rates expected to reach 95%, which is broadly close to pre-pandemic levels.

Encouraging booking dynamics

Sebastian Ebel, TUI Group CEO said: “Booking momentum remains encouraging and travel trends and strong demand for Easter holidays bode well for the coming summer. Our products and strong brand are popular and in high demand – in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and many other markets where people are looking for relaxation in the sun and active experiences. Based on trends to date and as we said in March, we continue to expect occupancy to be close to pre-pandemic levels. We expect a good summer in 2023.”

It is worth noting that when TUI presented its first quarter financials on 14 February 2023, it cited people’s continued willingness to travel and the significant increase in booking momentum since the start of the year. The UK and German markets saw record booking days, and in the four weeks to 5 February bookings were around 10% higher than pre-pandemic 2019 levels, while prices were higher. Various studies support this: Customers don’t want to forego vacations, despite current economic uncertainties. TUI customers continue to book for shorter periods and prefer package holidays and all-inclusive offers.