The war in Iran continues to encourage the trend toward last-minute reservations, said world tourism leader TUI on Wednesday, which confirmed its downwardly revised annual forecasts in April.
“Our results as well as the market as a whole show a trend towards bookings made more and more on a short-term basis, particularly in favor of destinations in the west of the Mediterranean,” indicated the group on the occasion of the publication of its quarterly results.
Nearly half of consumers planning to travel this summer have not yet booked, according to TUI.
Demand is shifting to Spain, including the Balearic Islands and Canaries, as well as Greece, set to be this summer’s hottest destinations.
But it “is still difficult to fly people to the Maldives, Seychelles, Thailand, etc., even with our own flights, because customers are reluctant to transit through Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi”, located in the war-torn Middle East, Sebastian Ebel said, chairman of the board of directors of TUI, during a telephone conference.
The Hanover group generally expects an increase in average prices which is already taking shape in the group’s hotels and cruise ships, which should make it possible to partially offset the increase in costs.
From January to March, the turnover of the group, which offers a range of travel, hotels, charter flights and cruises around the world, increased slightly by 1.7% at constant exchange rates, to 3.74 billion euros.
The operational loss, at 188 million euros, is around 9% lower than last year, despite the negative impact of the war in Iran, estimated at 40 million euros: on the one hand two ships blocked in the Emirates could not be operated for around ten weeks and customers had to be repatriated from the Middle East and the Far East.
Concerning the availability of fuel for its planes and boats, there will be no shortage in the short term and “we are convinced that there will be no shortage this summer”, assured Mr. Ebel.
Concerning the emergence of the hantavirus, at the center of the attention of international health authorities since the detection of an outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius, TUI does not feel to date “any impact” on cruise reservations which “are very strong”, according to Mr. Ebel.
TUI decided not to communicate an annual turnover forecast in April and still does not risk doing so in an environment which remains unstable.
The operating profit adjusted for exceptional effects (adjusted EBIT) should still be between 1.1 and 1.4 billion euros, i.e. a level at best equivalent to that of the previous year, which amounted to 1.4 billion euros.
