The south of Gran Canaria is the same age as a tourist destination as TUI, the large pan-European tourism operator that has once again survived the bankruptcy of a competitor like FTI after escaping Thomas Cook in 2019. TUI is the acronym of what Touristik Union International was born in 1968. TUI is the owner of 55% of the business in the south of Gran Canaria. Contrary to people's beliefs, TUI takes many risks such as the promotion of the destination, air transportation or the legal security of its clients in case of problems in hotels.
The history of this giant of the travel industry in the south of Gran Canaria began in Germany in 1968, when the small tour operators Scharnow, Dr. Tigges, Hummel and Touropa merged to form the International Tourist Union (TUI), says Olga Roglere in Finanzen.net. That same 1968, TUI sent the combined services of Scharnow, Dr. Tigges, Hummel and Touropa attracted thousands of Germans to the south of Gran Canaria and, according to WirtschaftsWoche, since then they have constantly contributed to the south of the island of Gran Canaria remains a popular tourist destination for Germans.
In 1970, TUI began to acquire or participate in many other tour operators and by 1974 the company was already recording sales worth more than one million marks. In 1977, TUI acquired a stake in the RIU hotel brand, which continues to play an important role in Gran Canaria today. The company continued to expand and in 1989 the TUI franchise system was established with the founding of the TUI UrlaubCenter (TUI ReiseCenter). Finally, in 1995, TUI began to expand to other countries as part of the founding of TUI Nederland. TUI Deutschland GmbH was officially founded on September 30, 1999.
At the end of the 90s, TUI became part of the large tourism group Preussag AG through a company acquisition. In June 2002 it was decided to rename the entire Preussag AG TUI AG. TUI AG increasingly established itself on the market and continued to grow, so that in 2019 the group was able to generate sales of €19.000 billion under the direction of CEO Friedrich Joussen. Joussen has held this position since 2013 and is appointed until 2025. He previously served as CEO of Vodafone Germany.
The company is not only the largest tour operator in the world, but is also characterized by having valued environmental management since 1990 and, therefore, by being the first in the travel sector: as reported by Joussen in the 2021 annual report, More than 80 per cent of TUI Hotels are sustainability certified, and in recent years several decisions have been made towards a CO2-efficient aircraft fleet and countless plastic parts have been saved across the group.
Like many other tour operators, TUI was hit hard by the pandemic and, according to the annual report, its sales in 2021 were 40 percent less than in the first year of the pandemic in 2020. In total, TUI made a loss of 2.500 billion euros in 2021, which was still 21 percent better than last year. Joussen thus comments on the financial evolution during the pandemic in the 2021 annual report: "The market is intact."
