In a trading statement for the third financial quarter, chief executive Fritz Joussen said the “digitalisation” of the group’s businesses and services was “progressing well”.
He added that for the first time, the group had delivered a positive operating result for the first nine months of a financial year.
In the period under review Tui Group recorded turnover growth of 16.41% to €4.94 billion, up from €4.24 billion the previous year.
Underlying Ebita (earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization) climbed 18.7% to €191 million.
In the UK, summer bookings remained flat at the high level recorded in the previous year despite the price inflation caused by the weakness of sterling. Due to the later timing of Easter into Q3, customer numbers in the UK were 5% up year-on-year.
Joussen said: “We successfully completed the sale of our Travelopia specialist tour operator business in Q3 and the remaining stake in Hapag-Lloyd AG in July 2017.
“This completes the transformation of the former diversified conglomerate to tourism group Tui.
“The rebranding has also been very successful in all countries and has strengthened Tui both at the global and local levels. The UK will be the last market to roll out the rebranding in autumn 2017.
“We will then consistently operate under the Tui brand in all source markets.
“Our clear focus on the high-growth and high-margin hotels and resorts and cruises segments has proven to be the right strategy and has been very successful.
“The digitalisation of our businesses and services is progressing well. We are embracing new technologies such as Blockchain, and have already started to apply it in our hotel businesses. Moreover, our modern CRM systems enable us to gain a single view of the customer.”
Since H1 2016/17, Tui Group’s cruises segment has included the results of all three cruise lines: Tui Cruises, Thomson Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.
In Q3 the division “continued its growth path and delivered a strong improvement in its operating result”.
Thomson Cruises also continues to grow: In the period under review, it launched Tui Discovery 2 and in 2018 will include Tui Explorer (currently operated by Tui Cruises as Mein Schiff 1) in its fleet, and in 2019 it will take over Mein Schiff 2 also from Tui Cruises.
The group’s cumulative €9 million operating result was positive for the first time.
Joussen continued: “This good performance reflects our successful transformation and focus on own hotel and cruise brands.
“We have significantly reduced the seasonal swing of our business. For the first time, we have delivered a positive operating result for the first nine months of a financial year. Tui is in excellent shape about to fulfil its objectives.”
