Europe’s leading tourism group Tui AG, majority owner of Tui Travel, saw an 11% drop in third-quarter profits due to the impact of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.
The German group suffered a decline in underlying profit before tax to euros96.2 million (£85 million) from euros108 million (£96 million) in the same three months last year.
This came on the back of a 9% year-on-year rise in turnover to euros4.4 billion (£3.9 billion).
In a statement the group said: “Operating earnings are expected to be in line with the prior year despite the impact of events in North Africa.”
However, Tui warned that profits from its container shipping business -it retains a 38% stake in Hapag-Lloyd – are expected to be “lower than anticipated”.
The group reported: “Earnings benefited from higher customer volumes and better average prices. On the other hand, they were impacted more strongly than expected by the impact of the unrest in North Africa, above all in source market France and the hotel business in Egypt.”
Tui AG holds a majority stake in Tui Travel which it listed on the London Stock Exchange following the merger of of Tui and First Choice in 2007. The company’s container-shipping stake is all that remains of the former German heavy-industry group Preussag from which it evolved in the 1990s.