TUI Travel counting the days

Bookings for 10-11 days or a week rather than the traditional fortnight’s break are rising, Peter Long, the Anglo-German travel group’s chief executive, said.

UK bookings overall have tailed off since the start of the year and were flat in the three months to March, though April picked up a little, he added.

Mr Long said TUI was outperforming other UK rivals such as Thomas Cook, helped by demand for its specialist resorts, such as all-inclusive holiday villages.

The Thomson owner cut its underlying losses by £15m to £307m in the latest six months to March. Sales rose by five per cent to £5.21bn.

The impact of the unrest in North Africa cost it £29m, with a late Easter meaning a further hit of £17m. Good growth in its Nordics business and a turnaround in Canada were the strong points.

Mr Long expects the group to meet City forecasts for this full year, though he remains cautious about the outlook for bookings going forward.

“The UK consumer mood is not getting worse” he said. “But there is a lot of pressure on incomes”.

France, he added, has been badly affected by the situation in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt as North Africa accounts for about 70 per cent of French holiday traffic.

All-inclusive holidays accounted for 46 per cent of the UK bookings in the latest six months, up from 43 per cent, while 10-11 night stays saw a 24 per cent rise against a seven per cent fall for fortnightly bookings.