Europe's largest travel operator, TUI, announced a 1% drop in bookings for the summer season on Wednesday, causing its share price to fall by almost 7% in early trading. Despite this slight decline, TUI maintained its forecast for 2025. According to the group's own data, Maspalomas is among the three best-selling European destinations in the German market, along with Mallorca and Crete. A sustained drop in bookings could disrupt the planning of tourist beds, seasonal hiring, and tax forecasts in the municipality. TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel acknowledged that 2025 will be a difficult year due to the macroeconomic context. "Europe needs a new impetus. We must return to a growing global economy," he said.
TUI also reported an underlying loss before interest and taxes of €206,8 million in the January-March quarter, higher than the €188,7 million the previous year, although less severe than analysts estimated. A slowdown in German tourism through TUI would represent a structural blow to the economic fabric of Maspalomas, which is already facing uncertainties linked to political change in Germany and accumulated inflation in the source markets.
The company attributed the decline in bookings to a later Easter holiday, which affected the data reported between January and March for many European airlines. However, airlines such as Air France-KLM and IAG—owner of British Airways—have reported stronger results for the same period. In a statement, TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel warned that, given the current economic conditions, 2025 will be a challenging year. Europe needs a new impetus. We must return to a growing global economy, he noted. The weakness in Germany could indicate that we are moving away from the upper end of the forecasts if these trends continue.
The slowdown in booking growth also negatively impacted the stock during the group's last quarterly results report in February. Fehmi Ben Naamane, an analyst at ODDO BHF, told financial media that "we are clearly facing a slowdown in demand, especially in Germany." On Wednesday, TUI reported an underlying loss before interest and taxes of €206,8 million for the first quarter, higher than the €188,7 million for the same period last year, although better than expected, as analysts surveyed by LSEG had forecast losses of €224 million.
