The first six months of
The first six months of
The Tourism Division boosted turnover in the first half by 32 per cent to Euro 6.0 billion. This increase in turnover of Euro 1.45 billion year-on-year was over-proportionally attributable to the Central Europe Division. This is associated with the consolidation of Thomson Travel Group for the first time, displacing Thomas Cook Group which was still part of Preussag in this period the previous year.
The profit generated by the Tourism Division at Euro 76 million in the first half year was also better than budgeted. The performance of Europe Central and Europe North was considerably up on the previous year. As expected, the second quarter more than compensated for the negative result of the first quarter associated with advance payments.
The tourism 2001 summer season has developed well so far. Booked turnover for TUI Group and Thomson Travel Group tour operators in the major German and British source markets are in part considerably up on the previous year. Whilst market growth overall in Germany this year is expected to lie between three to five per cent, the German tour operators TUI Deutschland, 1-2-FLY, Airtours International, L'TUR and Wolters Reisen, boast an increase in turnover for the ongoing summer season of around 9.6 per cent year-on-year. The tour operators have also posted strong growth in smaller markets such as Belgium, Austria and Ireland. In the United Kingdom, Thomson Travel Group was able to follow its successful winter season with a very promising start to the 2001 summer season. Thomson Holiday's strategy to improve the margins and field a slightly less comprehensive range than the previous year has worked very successfully and the summer holiday range has sold well. Booked turnover by mid-August for the Europe North Division overall was up 2.5 per cent year-on-year.
Commenting on the ongoing tourism business, Frenzel said, "As the summer season progresses, the positive tour operator business will continue the good seat-capacity utilisation of the Hapag-Lloyd Flug and Britannia fleets and ensure good occupancy rates in the Group's hotels. Conditions overall are therefore favourable for a further improvement in tourism performance in this financial year."
The Logistics Division continued its positive development and increased turnover in the first half 2001 by around 11 per cent year-on-year to Euro 1.95 billion. In absolute figures, the lion's share of this growth was attributable to container shipping. At Euro 175 million, the profit for the first half 2001 was around 23 per cent higher than the previous year.
At Euro 2.87 billion, the turnover of the Industry Division in the first half was around six per cent lower year-on-year, primarily due to a decline in Trading and Building Technology.
The Energy Division produced another good performance. The profit of Euro 190 million in the first half 2001 was up 74 per cent year-on-year.
The Trading business generated a turnover of Euro 1.5 billion which was down on the previous year for price and volume reasons. The profit of Euro 19 million was also less than the previous year's figure.
The weakness in demand in the domestic construction sector is reflected in the Building Technology results which suffered a loss of Euro 31 million.
"The good performance in the first half 2001 of our main profit generators – Tourism, Logistics and Energy – and the favourable conditions overall for these sectors in the second half of the financial year, mean that an excellent consolidated result can again be expected for 2001," said Frenzel.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
