The lively demand in the last weeks of the tourism summer season continued to have a positive impact on the bookings situation in…
The lively demand in the last weeks of the tourism summer season continued to have a positive impact on the bookings situation in all of the TUI Group`s main European sub-markets. The major surge in bookings in the final weeks reduced the double-figure deficit at the start of the season to 4.2 per cent at season end. This overall figure reflects differences in the strength of development in the Group`s various European source markets that also continued into the last weeks of the tourism summer season: in the UK, the Group was almost at the same level as the previous year, whilst Belgium for example finished up 9.2 per cent. This shows that the shortfall in bookings in Germany because of the weakness of its economy is a German and not a European phenomenon, says Dr. Michael Frenzel, TUI AG executive board chairman. Against this background he also referred to the pan-European positioning of the TUI Group which now generates the majority of its business outside of Germany.
Demand also gained considerable further momentum in the final weeks of the summer season in the important German market as explained by the head of TUI Deutschland, Dr. Volker Bottcher, at the presentation event in Egypt for next summer`s brochures. Bookings in August and September thus exceeded last year`s levels. The final figure for booked turnover in Germany for the 2002 summer season was thus down around eight per cent, and therefore much better than the market trend which experts currently consider to be down by just short of ten per cent. The first figures on bookings for the coming winter season are also very promising. The Group is therefore expecting the 2002 financial year in tourism to end with a satisfactory result.
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