TUI Germany boss Stefan Baumert sees a rush for winter holidays following the insolvency of FTI. A large proportion of these are German tourists who travelled with FTI and who have recovered their money after the bankruptcy of the tour operator and have postponed their winter holidays to the south of Gran Canaria. For the whole of the Canary Islands, the aim is to reach 17,8 million tourists.
For the autumn holidays alone, TUI could make 75.000 additional offers by purchasing additional capacity, Baumert said. TUI boss Sebastian Ebel recently explained at the presentation of the group's quarterly figures that numerous new customers came to TUI following the insolvency of FTI. In future, they want to focus more on the lower-cost segment, where FTI was strong.
Although it is not easy to assess the exact effect of FTI's bankruptcy on the market leader, there are several indicators. The number of bookings in the German market for the summer is ten percent higher than last year, while in Great Britain it is only five percent and six percent for the group as a whole. Capacity for the summer programme was rapidly expanded in important destinations such as the Canary Islands. This led to additional bookings.
For the market leader in the south of Gran Canaria, the fact that FTI tended to operate in a lower price segment than TUI is probably not entirely irrelevant for the future outlook. Head of Germany Stefan Baumert had already announced at the beginning of the year that TUI wanted to expand its offering in this area, knowing full well that some German citizens will not easily repeat the booking habits of previous years due to inflation and rising travel prices. in 2022 and 2023 may continue.
In addition, former FTI customers have not yet received a refund of their deposits for booked trips. This process was only initiated in the last few days by the travel price protection fund DRSF. Many customers would not be able to afford a new booking before they have been refunded their money. It is therefore expected that the DRSF payment could lead to a further surge in bookings. The only thing that is not clear is whether holiday plans will be implemented for a later date to destinations such as Maspalomas.
Overall, the figures for the tour operator business, summarized by TUI in the Markets and Airlines category, for the Central region, to which Germany belongs, are solid with an operating profit of €21 million in the final quarter (2023: €9 million), although the hotel industry (€131 million) and cruises (€91 million) generate significantly more. It remains to be seen how the increased exposure to the lower-priced segment will affect profitability.
