Wildfires having a ‘significantly lower’ impact on Tui holidaymakers this year

Tui chief Sebastian Ebel has denied raging wildfires across Europe this summer have impacted the group’s holidaymakers, insisting the effects to date had been “significantly lower” than last year.

Speaking as Tui announced its quarterly results for April to June and results for the first nine months of this financial year, chief executive Ebel said: “Any fire is not good. But the effects this year have been significantly lower than last year because countries are better prepared.

“We’ve not had to evacuate any guests – the fires are more something we see in the media.”

He insisted: “We don’t expect a significant impact unless there is a big fire near a tourist hotel.”

Ebel’s assessment of the impact on holidaymakers stands in stark contrast to the wildfire situation overall, with the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) reporting last week that there had been 1,628 wildfires covering more than 30 hectares since the start of this year, up from 1,089 at the same time of a year ago and burning an area more than twice the size.

The EFFIS Fire Weather Index predicted “extreme to very extreme conditions” would continue “across the entire continent” but with severe risks in northwest Spain and Portugal, most of France, the Balkans, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, as well as in parts of Sweden, Norway and eastern Finland.

Fires in Spain and Portugal continued to rage at the weekend with thousands of firefighters battling huge blazes, with 14 major fires reported in Spain where temperatures on Saturday exceeded 44C

Wildfires triggered evacuations on the islands of Kefalonia and Zante last week and the Foreign Office issued an active wildfire alert over travel to Cyprus last month, although the Cyprus Hotel Association reported no impact on hotels.

Tui reported a post-tax profit of €225 million for the three months to June, more than double its profit a year ago, and a 7% rise in revenue to €6.2 billion despite taking 2% fewer summer bookings year on year.