UK showing ‘positive momentum’ for Tui in face of ‘competitive market pressures’

The UK is showing “positive momentum” for Tui with bookings up 1% for the summer as the group reported a positive start to winter 2025-26.

 

Winter bookings from the UK are “broadly in line” with 2024-25.

 

The details emerged in a trading update today (Tuesday) from Europe’s largest travel group. 

 

“Demand has remained steady even as we navigate competitive market pressures, multiple summer heatwaves across our source markets, as well as the impact of the conflict in the Middle East,” the company said. 

 

An additional 1.4 million bookings since the last update in August has brought total bookings across all source markets to 14.1 million for the summer season.

 

While overall bookings remain at 2% down year on year, the average selling price continues to hold up at with a rise of 3%, “helping us to partly mitigate the elevated cost environment”.

 

Greece, Turkey, the Balearics and the Canary Islands are proving to be the key short- and medium haul destinations, with Egypt registering “notable growth” as a value-conscious holiday option. 

 

In the group’s smaller long-haul portfolio, Mexico and the Dominican Republic continue to drive the highest demand, while Thailand, UAE and Zanzibar are experiencing “significant growth” as the Tui expands its diversified global offering.

 

“The performance across our main source markets remains consistent with our previous update,” the group added as it reaffirmed its raised full year underlying profit [ebit] growth of between 9% and 11% from €1.3 billion last year.

 

The winter season has continued its positive start, with 1.8 million bookings taken to date. 

 

Winter 2025-26 is being underpinned by “resilient consumer spend for leisure experiences, against the background of broader economic and geopolitical uncertainties provides confidence heading into full year ’26,” Tui said.

 

“Overall bookings are 1% higher, demonstrating resilient demand for our leisure travel products against the background of broader market challenges,” the company added. Average selling prices are up 3% overall.

 

“As is typical for this point in the season, trading for the winter is at a relatively early stage with over one third of customers having booked to date,” the company said. 

 

“Short- and medium-haul destinations form the core of volumes, with the Canaries, Egypt, mainland Spain and Cape Verde emerging as the most popular choices. 

 

“In long-haul, Thailand is experiencing the highest growth, while Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica remain key winter escapes for our customers.

 

“Looking at individual market performance, UK bookings are broadly in line with winter 2024-25, whilst in Germany, our other key market, we are seeing positive momentum with bookings 1% higher.”

 

Tui noted that the appeal of its cruise brands in both the UK and Germany remains strong “underlined by rising occupancy levels despite the significant capacity increase”. 

 

The expansion of the Tui Muesment tours and activities business is “progressing to plan”, focused on growing experiences available to B2C customers, as well as B2B clients. 

 

“We project our experiences business encompassing excursions, activities, and attraction tickets, to achieve mid-single-digit-percentage growth in Q4. 

 

“Our transfers business, providing destination support services to our guests, is expected to develop in line with our markets and airline volume projections for Q4."

 

While bookings for the first half of the next financial year are still at an early stage, "early indications are promising".

 

Tui is due to issue full year results on December 10.