TUI says confident of travel demand for Turkey returning

BERLIN

Travel demand for Turkey seems to be coming back, while tourists have continued to pile into Spain over the last two years due to security concerns around other summer destinations such as Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey, the chief executive of the European tourism group TUI has said. 

“Spain is pretty full,” Fritz Joussen told journalists after the group reported third-quarter results, as quoted by Reuters on Aug. 10. 

“Last year we had an all-time high and this year we will be on similar levels,” Joussen said. 

Visitors to Spain jumped 12 percent in the first half of 2017 to 36.4 million.

Joussen said most people in Spain were happy with tourists because they help provide jobs and support the economy. But with prices for Spain rising due to high demand, other more affordable destinations could come into play.

“If demand is very high, prices are high and other destinations build because they are more affordable and that is what is happening right now,” Joussen said.

He noted TUI would probably not reduce capacity for Turkey next year because demand was coming back. 

He added that TUI would look at adding Tunisia back into its program but no decision had been taken yet.

Rival Thomas Cook is planning to restart holidays to Tunisia after Britain altered its travel advice but said it would take time to set up.

Joussen was speaking after the group increased its sales target for the year to “significantly more” than 3 percent growth and reported a 38 percent rise in core profit to 221.6 million euros, partly thanks to the later timing of Easter.

It confirmed a target for core earnings to rise by at least 10 percent this year.