Tui summer bookings down 2% amid late trend in ‘highly competitive' market

Tui is seeing a continuing trend towards late bookings for this summer in a “highly competitive environment”.

 

Summer bookings are down 2% year on year for the European travel group’s markets and airline (M+A) division - covering tour operations, airlines and travel agencies - with price rises of 3%.

 

Tui Group said summer business in the segment “is characterised by a highly competitive environment with a continuing trend towards later bookings and was impacted by the hot weather in June and July in our source markets and the conflict in the Middle East”. 

 

However, the start of bookings for winter 2025-26 is positive overall, the company noted.

 

The update came as Tui Group reported a record financial third quarter with underlying profits up 38% to €321 million on a 7% rise in revenue to €6.2 billion as it achieved a further reduction in seasonality and achieved strong results from its holiday experiences segment, hotels and resorts and cruises.

 

A total of 5.9 million holidaymakers travelled with Tui in the April to June period, up from  5.8 million last year. 

 

Tui highlighted a “strong increase” of 14% to one million dynamically packaged products, which it said offer customers more choice and flexibility. 

 

The average flight load factor remained at the high level of the previous year in all markets at 94%.

 

The quarterly performance enabled the group to raise its full-year profit guidance by as much as 11% from €1.3 billion achieved in the last financial year with revenue projected to be up five to 10% year on year from €23.1 billion.

 

The new guidance “is based on the strong performance in the first nine months of 2025 and on initial positive indications for July,” Tui said.

 

The M+A arm saw positive earnings development in the quarter driven by a later Easter “in a highly competitive market” with profits up to €50 million from €17 million in the same period last year.

 

Group chief executive Sebastian Ebel said: “We are seeing strong growth and raised our targets for the full year. We achieved record results for our hotel and cruise brands. 

 

“We are intensively driving forward the transformation of the traditional tour operator business across all source markets. All whilst increasing the share of differentiated products, becoming more efficient in our processes and reducing our costs through global production platforms. This will enable us to grow profitably.“

 

He added: ”The third quarter and the first nine months of the financial year 2025 were strong. Our strategy is paying off. We are benefiting from our integrated and diversified business model and managed to reduce the group’s seasonality further. 

 

“All this in a continuing challenging environment for our M+A segment with economic difficulties in Europe, Europe-wide heat waves in the summer and the conflict in the Middle East. 

 

“We are accelerating the transformation of the Markets + Airline segment by implementing standardised, global platforms that generate profitable growth and reduce our cost base. 

 

“This means that we can offer our existing and new customers more products in more destinations – globally. At the same time, the number of our source markets is growing. Individuality, flexibility and the proven security of the gold standard in package holidays are at the forefront of our efforts.” 

 

He continued: “We continue to rely on the proven sales strength of our own and partner travel agencies. 

 

“To this end, we are further expanding our app offering. In May, we launched the Tui Tours platform in the German market. The platform enables customers to seamlessly personalise multi-day trips in real time and combine all our travel components. 

 

“The FIT (Flexible Independent Travel) market is one of the fastest-growing segments in the travel industry. It is worth around €20 billion in our core markets, with a significant share in Germany. 

 

“In the future, Tui Tours will also be rolled out in other markets. In the Holiday Experiences segment, the focus is on our asset-right strategy, which will enable us to further expand our highly profitable hotel portfolio, primarily in Africa but also in Asia. 

 

“The strategy is to build destination clusters in line with Tuis strengths. In the cruise segment, Tui Cruises expects another InTUItion-class vessel next year.“