Crete and Rhodes Top Choices for TUI Travelers this Summer

Rhodes, Greece.

Two Greek islands, Crete and Rhodes are top destinations of choice for travelers in addition to the Balearic Islands, said holiday operator TUI Group on Thursday.

Indicatively, Athens and Crete are among the top three favorites for TUI France customers; Rhodes for TUI UK and TUI Belgium; Crete and Rhodes for TUI Nordic; and Rhodes and Kos for TUI Netherlands.

Overall, the company announced that bookings had increased by 1.5 million since May, bringing the total for this summer to 4.2 million. According to TUI, average prices are nine percent higher than for summer 2019 due to the high proportion of package holidays in current bookings.

The German-based travel firm said the improved performance had helped ease pressure on finances hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and measures.

TUI Chief Executive Fritz Joussen said that booking momentum was picking up and demand for holidays was high from leading markets Germany and the UK.

However, the delayed UK opening and repeatedly changing green list, forced the group to slash its summer capacity to 60 percent of its pre-pandemic 2019 program, down from the initial 75 percent in May.

At the same time, bookings from Germany and the rest of Europe contributed to a positive cash flow in April-June, for the first time since Covid-19 broke out, with a cash inflow of 320 million euros.

“The good thing is liquidity is out of the way, we are not burning cash anymore,” Joussen said.

This summer, the group expects profitability to be “reasonably good” and looking ahead expects bookings for 2022 to strong.

It should be reminded that TUI has taken on loans of over 4 billion euros.

“Customer demand and booking momentum are high as soon as travel restrictions are withdrawn. The figures for the start of the summer business are encouraging. Germany and continental European markets show high demand. In England this will only be reflected in Q4. Business is coming back and TUI’s transformation is clearly having an impact.”