Holiday firm Tui has slashed winter losses and forecasts a booming summer thanks to pent-up demand amid easing restrictions.
Britain is “leading the way” for bookings along with Denmark, the travel giant said.
The UK government’s decision to ditch travel curbs for vaccinated travellers has helped boost demand in what is Tui’s second-largest market. Summer holiday bookings in Britain are up 19 per cent compared with two years earlier.
Bookings for overseas holidays soared in early January after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the easing of testing and quarantine requirements for arrivals.
Heathrow Airport, the UK's busiest aviation hub, is preparing to meet a 394 per cent surge in summer bookings.
Tui, a multinational company headquartered in Germany, reported an underlying loss of €273.6 million ($312.6m) for its first quarter to the end of December, compared with a loss of €675.8 million a year earlier. Tui's financial year runs from October to September.
Tui saw revenue rise five-fold to €2.37 billion from €468 million a year ago, helped by surging prices — up 22 per cent for summer trips and 15 per cent higher for winter holidays.
The firm put the surge in prices for holidays down to travellers having bigger budgets and looking for better quality.
The spread of the Omicron variant proved to be a “short-term dampener” at the end of November and December, Tui said. However, holidaymakers are still looking to book very last minute amid fear of restrictions and disruption.
The travel group said “confidence in progress in ending the pandemic is increasing and holiday bookings are picking up significantly”.
Fritz Joussen, chief executive of Tui, said the firm is expecting a “strong summer 2022” for bookings, which are set to be close to levels seen before the pandemic.
“There is pent-up demand among customers. We see this in all European source markets,” Mr Joussen said.
“Every step towards normality gives people confidence, and the demand for holidays increases immediately.”
But despite the increasing demand for foreign holidays, staycations are predicted to remain popular for Britons this year.
More than a third (35 per cent) of people surveyed by travel deals firm Travelzoo said they will probably book three to four UK trips before the end of the year.
The ballot showed one in five (22 per cent) had already made domestic travel bookings.
When booking a trip, 45 per cent of those polled said the most important factor for travellers is the ability to change dates or be flexible on dates without being charged.
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However, there are also signs the UK tourism market may suffer from people choosing to go abroad this year, many for the first time since before the coronavirus crisis.
Visit Devon, the tourism board in the English county famed for its beaches, said booking for the half-term school holidays in February was “looking slow”. The authority said the rising cost of living was probably playing a part in putting people off staycations.
In a recent Skyscanner survey, 40 per cent of British travellers revealed they will travel abroad in 2022 for summer holidays, followed by Christmas (15 per cent) and Easter (13 per cent).
More than one in four ranked guaranteed sunshine to be one of the most important factors when booking a holiday this year.
Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy and Turkey proved to be Europe’s most popular destinations for travellers from the UK for economy return travel this summer. Prices are up to 67 per cent cheaper for economy return travel from the UK this summer, compared with the same period in 2019.
Dubai proved to be the overall most popular overseas destination for Britons.
Skyscanner data shows bookings to Dubai from the UK made in January for travel this year were up 49 per cent from the same month in 2020.
