At a good time, green sleeves. TUI, which controls 34,4% of the tourism business in the south of Gran Canaria and this winter has been marred by the internal power crisis given that its largest shareholder is Russian, said last weekend that it expects the reserves vacation rates to increase toward pre-pandemic levels as the industry slowly but steadily recovers. German President Stefan Baumert told German newspaper group Funke: “Our customers have to catch up. “We are convinced that we can get closer to the 2019 level.”
This announcement comes after TUI said last month that summer holiday bookings were approaching pre-Covid levels based on pent-up demand, with a steady return to normality in the UK as They have completely lifted restrictions and testing rules and international travel has become increasingly accessible.
TUI CEO Fritz Joussen told media last month that long-distance travel also looked more attractive despite inflation problems, and that people are likely to use their savings accumulated during the various lockdowns to spend on trips. Separately, the company said it would keep mask rules "under review", despite changes to Covid-19 rules around the world. So far, Jet2 is the only airline that has removed passengers from wearing masks during travel.
While travel may be improving, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has caused problems within TUI's leadership team, with Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov resigning from his board position last week. Mordashov was placed on the EU sanctions list in retaliation for Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions imposed by the European Commission relate only to Mordashov as an individual and do not involve TUI as a company. As a close friend of Vladimir Putin, there were concerns about Mordashov's role. He had been the majority shareholder of TUI for about 15 years and owned 34 percent of the company's shares. The remaining 66 percent is owned by various private and institutional investors from the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
