1Prior to entering its close period ahead of reporting its Interim results for the six months ending 31 March 2014 on 13 May 2014, TUI Travel PLC announces the following update on current trading.
Peter Long, Chief Executive of TUI Travel PLC, commented:
“We are pleased with trading during the Winter 2013/14 season, with most of our programs now almost fully sold. We have once again successfully demonstrated the flexibility and resilience of our business model enabling us to absorb the impacts of geopolitical events more effectively, including the ongoing turbulent political situation in Egypt.
Summer 2014 trading is in line with expectations, with a strong online performance across Mainstream, particularly in the UK and Germany. Demand for unique holidays also remains strong. Our customers are increasingly seeing the benefits of our digital transformation strategy, which in turn is driving conversion improvements from our new web platforms. We remain on track to deliver an H1 result broadly in line with last year, excluding the timing of Easter, and are confident of achieving a full-year performance in line with our target of growing underlying operating profit by 7 to 10%1.?
Highlights
- Robust Modern Mainstream model
- Winter 2013/14 trading closing out as expected, with higher average selling prices across most of our key source markets.
- Summer 2014 bookings are flat against tough comparatives, with strong pricing and approximately 45% of the programme sold.
- Pleased with trading, particularly in the UK and Germany.
- France on track to reduce operating losses through restructuring and capacity management.
- Unique holidays driving demand
- Rising demand for unique holidays continues and now accounts for 72% of Mainstream Summer 2014 bookings, up two percentage points on prior year.
- Strong online performance with Mainstream Summer 2014 online bookings up by 8%.
- Accommodation Wholesaler growth
- Accommodation Wholesaler continues to build a global leadership position with TTV up by 33% for Summer 2014.
1?Constant currency basis assumes that constant foreign exchange translation rates are applied to the underlying operating result in the current and prior year
