TUI sees growth through Cyprus and Canaries

TUI Group, the world’s largest tour operator, said it was confident of increasing earnings by more than 10 percent this year, as holidays to the Canary Islands and Cyprus replace security-threatened destinations in Egypt and Tunisia.

The positive outlook from Germany-based TUI echoed comments from Britain’s Thomas Cook in November, showing holiday companies have defied market worries that security concerns would dent appetite for travel.

Holiday firms were forced to stop holidays to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November.

That followed the cancellation of trips to Tunisia earlier in the year, after the death of 38 holidaymakers, most of whom were TUI customers, in a massacre on a beach in June.

The security threat was further intensified by the attacks in Paris which killed 130 people on November 13.

TUI’s joint chief executive Peter Long said TUI’s growth forecast for the current financial year took into account the costs of disruption in Egypt.

[Reuters]