Tui hopes for a quick vaccination for the pandemic

The travel restrictions due to the corona pandemic and lockdowns in many countries have pushed the world's largest travel company Tui deep into the red at the end of 2020. In the first quarter of the financial year to the end of December, the bottom line was a loss of almost 803 million euros, as the company announced. A year earlier, Tui had posted a typical loss for the season, which at 129 million euros was less than a sixth of that. Sales recently slumped by almost 88 percent to 468 million euros due to the slump in the travel business. Since last spring, the German state has saved Tui from economic ruin with billions in aid. The company is now focusing on an urgently needed recovery in the upcoming summer. CEO Fritz Joussen is confident about the progress of vaccinations, especially in Great Britain: "The more resolutely the vaccination campaigns are implemented, the faster we can return to real freedom to travel." He also advertised again for more corona rapid tests.

Customers are ready to spend more money

Alongside air transport and the hospitality industry, the tourism sector is one of the sectors that have been hardest hit. Tui hopes that a new start can be started in the Easter travel season in a few weeks. Most recently, the provider had to cancel trips to important destinations around the Mediterranean by the end of February or March. For the summer, Tui says it already has 2.8 million bookings across the group, slightly more than half the volume for the comparable pre-crisis summer two years ago. The prices would be on average 20 percent higher. Tui's travel offer should continue to reach 80 percent of the 2019 program in the warm season. Planning risks remained because many customers booked at shorter notice and often "significantly later" than in normal years. However, the apparently high willingness to spend is encouraging. "This trend is a good signal for tourism, but also for gastronomy and cultural businesses."