TUI Extends its Travel Season in Greece to November

Global leisure travel operator TUI announced that it would be extending its travel packages for Greece into November taking advantage of the mild weather and in view of strong demand.

The travel giant will do the same for Turkey. In this direction, TUI said it was adding some 30,000 extra airline seats from the UK to Rhodes, Crete and Antalya.

The aim, the company said, is to offer holidaymakers more flexibility. According to TUI, the extreme summer temperatures disrupted plans for many vacationers who are opting instead to travel in the cooler autumn months. Indicatively, demand for October is up by 8 percent over the same month in 2022.

Rhodes, Greece. Photo source: TUI

“We have seen strong demand in the final weeks of the summer season which traditionally runs to the end of October. As a consequence, we recently announced the extension of the season into November in particular to Turkey and Greece, to cover demand outside the traditional summer season,” said TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel.

He went on to forecast that global heating would be driving demand up for cooler destinations such as Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as for the Canary Islands.

The travel company, which reported 13.7 million bookings over the summer, marking a 5 percent rise compared to 2022 and coming very close to recouping pre-Covid 2019 levels at 96 percent, had been planning to extend its traditional April-November season as demand for warmer destinations like Greece and Turkey in winter rises.

Crete, Greece. Photo © TUI UK Limited

According to data provided by the company, the number of winter bookings are up by 15 percent over the same period in 2022 despite a 4 percent rise in prices. TUI said it has sold almost two-fifths of its winter packages in the UK.

“We are seeing a strong close to the summer season and we are on course to achieve results in line with expectations,” said Ebel.