Tour operators are battling a drop of about 30 percent in bookings to Greece from Germans, the world’s biggest spenders on foreign holidays, who have been put off by anti-German sentiment following the country’s financial bailout.
According to Reuters, Chief Financial Officer OF German travel and tourism group TUI, Horst Baier said, “I regret this situation very much and I really cross my fingers that people are coming back and decide to book a holiday in Greece.”
German travel and tourism group TUI said demand for holidays in North Africa was recovering, as it reported a smaller than expected second-quarter loss.
Tour operators such as Europe’s largest TUI Travel, controlled by TUI, and Thomas Cook were hit hard last year as European tourists stayed away from North African destinations like Tunisia and Egypt following uprisings. Tourists are now returning, though numbers are not expected to recover to pre-uprising levels until next year or even longer for Egypt.
TUI reported a second-quarter loss of 224 million euros. It confirmed an outlook for moderate turnover growth and a slight improvement in underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortization for the fiscal year to end of September.
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