THOMSON owner
Preussag has moved to distance itself from rival MyTravel’s gloomy outlook on
the UK market.
The industry giant
said UK turnover and bookings were recovering and prices had risen for summer
2002.
TUI northern
Europe and TUI Airlines chairman Charles Gurassa revealed summer turnover was
2.7% down on last year and bookings down 5.7%. However, he said this was an
improvement on the 5.7% and 8% declines respectively for last winter.
Gurassa added
average prices were 3% higher than last summer at £700 per person.
He said: “There
are more people left to book. Prices and margins will be the same if they come
back, and if they do we will be very strong. But the question is will they come
back?”
Gurassa added the
encouraging TUI figures were helped by strong premium Thomson brand sales of A
La Carte, Platinum and Gold.
MyTravel chief
executive Tim Byrne issued a profits warning after his bookings for this summer
nose-dived and the group said it had one million holidays still to sell (Travel
Weekly May 27). Gurassa claimed Thomson has 24.3% of the market for this
summer, while MyTravel has 16.6% and First Choice has 12.2%.
TUI chairman
Michael Frenzel said the group had not had to reduce prices dramatically for
the summer.
“There will not be
a price war. We will be stable and are well positioned for 2002, it is not a
great year, but it is not a catastrophe,” he said.
Frenzel explained
the group forecasted a 7%-8% drop in bookings for this summer, so consequently
cut capacity by 3% and redirected as many bookings as possible away from
third-party suppliers. He said: “We were well advised to fill our own capacity.
Behind this is a business logic of being flexible from one month to another.
“We are trying to
achieve the optimum reach of our own resources,” he said.
Preussag expects
to see 3% growth in the UK between 2001 and 2005. A third of TUI’s turnover is
fuelled by UK sales, while 40% is from Germany.
The group handles 22 million customers a year, offering one million beds
in the high season, of which 150,000 are its own.