TUI predicts good times ahead
TUI AG chairman Dr Michael Frenzel has predicted that tourism will return to a ‘growth path’ next year.
It follows disappointing half year results for the group, particularly in its home market of Germany due to a downturn in consumer spending. In the second quarter turnover in the tourism division rose by 1.9% to 3.2 billion euro. However this was because the Nouvelles Frontières Group was fully consolidated for the first time. If if it had not been included, quarterly turnover would have been down 5.8% on the same period last year.
In the Northern Europe sector (UK, Ireland, Nordic countries and Britannia Airways), turnover in the second quarter dropped by 12% to 1.1 billion euro.
However TUI said summer 2003 bookings had “improved significantly” since the end of the Iraq conflict. It said that the increasing number of late bookings should be enough to bring its third quarter earnings close to last year’s level. However they would not be enough to save the year as a whole, with TUI warning that results for the 2003 financial year will be lower than a year ago.
TUI AG chairman Dr Michael Frenzel said: “Over the past few months, the tourism industry has been operating in an extremely difficult environment. However, the catch-up effects in booked tourism turnover which have been recorded for quite some time now indicate that the trend is bottoming out. Against the backlog of the expected economic recovery and the increase in consumer confidence, tourism will return to a growth path next year. This trend will also benefit the TUI Group.”
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