TUI Travel posts strong summer
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TUI Travel has posted an as-expected strong summer for the year with the price of its holidays higher than the previous year.
Demand for its unique holidays account for 70% of its mainstream bookings, up 3% on last year, with 37% of the summer’s sales made online.
Its accommodation wholesale arm has also seen positive growth of 17% for summer.
In a trading update the company said it is expecting a full year underlying operating profit increase of at least 9% when it reveals its full year results in December for the 12 months ending 30 September 2014.
“We are very pleased with our trading during the summer 2014 peak season, particularly in the UK and Germany, with most of our programmes now almost fully sold. Our strong trading and market performance continues to be driven by increased customer demand for unique holidays and higher conversion rates from our web platforms, driven by our digital transformation strategy,” said Peter Long, chief executive of TUI Travel PLC.
“Our flexible and resilient business model is enabling us to deliver sustainable, profitable growth against a backdrop of more competitive trading in the commodity space and an increase in airline capacity. As a result of our successful strategy, we are confident of achieving full year underlying operating profit growth of at least 9% on a constant currency basis, versus our previous guidance of 7% to 10%,” he added.
Looking ahead its winter 2014/15 programme is 38% sold and summer 2015 trading in the UK is up 11%.
In the UK market its winter bookings are up 5% with the average selling price up 2%, with high demand for its Jamaica and Mexico destinations driven by the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
TUI’s strategy to shift bookings online, which it recently announced will cause its Coventry office to close, has seen winter 2014/15 sales up 11% through its online platforms, accounting for 47% of sales.
Talks also continuing to confirm the merger with TUI AG, after an announcement in September said they had reached an agreement on terms of an all-share, nil-premium merger.
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