TUI Group has announced that its demand for the summer 2021 holiday season is looking good, despite the “uncertainties,” and the group is prepared for a resumption of tourism.

Among the factors that contribute to the group’s preparedness are the development of its safety and hygiene concepts; the rapid vaccination progress in Great Britain, a market that’s important for the group; and “more rapid tests make an end to the standstill in tourism possible.”

“Our teams in the travel agencies, tour operators and TUI’s hotel, airline and cruise companies are prepared for the new start in tourism in 2021. As expected, customers will book their summer holidays much later this year than in normal years. However, demand remains strong, people want to travel – this is shown by the already good number of bookings for the summer,” said Fritz Joussen, CEO of TUI Group.

According to a press release, 2.8 million bookings were made with the group for summer 2021, 56 percent of the bookings at the same time for summer 2019, with average prices 20 percent higher than for summer 2019.

The TUI Group’s revenue from cruising in Q1 of 2021 (October-December 2020) totaled 0.6 million euros (previous year: 238.4 million euros). Overall, the group sunk to a 698.6 million euro loss in the quarter (previous year’s quarter not affected by the pandemic: -146.7 million euros).

TUI Group said it managed to cut the losses thanks to successful cost management.

TUI Group also reported agreeing a third Corona financing package with shareholders, banks, and the Economic Stabilization Fund. According to the press release, the package with a total volume of 1.8 billion euros was completed in the last week of January. It includes a rights issue, which will provide the group with funds of around 500 million euros.