Filenews 10 February 2021 - Insider
Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Portugal are among TUI's customer preferences for this year's holiday, said the company's chief executive, Fritz Yussin, who expects tourism activity to take off this summer.
Tui, the world's largest travel group, is forecasting a recovery in tourist traffic in the summer, which will help ease the economic pressure itself is under, from the decline in activity caused by the pandemic. In the last quarter of 2020, the group posted losses (before interest and tax, EBIT) of EUR 699 million. Euro. Tui has secured support from the German government to survive. As it announced, its available amounts to EUR 2.1 billion. Euro. "These are sufficient by the summer, until activity takes off in the summer," the company's chief executive, Fritz Yussin, told reporters.
It adds that in view of this summer the interested parties are turning to classic destinations: Spain, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Portugal, in other words "Mediterranean first". According to the travel giant's representative, it is not out of the question that we will see air fares for Mediterranean countries quickly blown away.
As vaccinations and coronavirus tests progress, the faster the road to travel will open up, Bild writes, with the headline: "Travel boom expected this summer." The newspaper hosts statements by German government tourism spokesman Thomas Barays, who appears confident that Germans have a strong appetite for travel.
But in Britain, which is Tui's largest market, along with Germany, the government is constantly warning people not to book trips abroad for the summer and is in the process of strengthening border controls.
Tui said it is ready to restart in the coming weeks and has 2.8 million bookings for the summer, adding that customers are likely to make bookings much closer to their departure date this year.
Progress in the UK vaccination programme is expected to contribute to bookings, according to the company. TUI's stock opened yesterday down 1% at 326 pence (£3.26), and has lost 40% of its value in the past 12 months. Jefferies analysts said TUI's net debt stands at $7.2 billion. They warned that cancellations for the summer holidays could be painful.
Forbes: European countries promote vaccination passports between them and Cyprus
Last month, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she supported the creation of a common vaccination certificate established by the EU so that it could be issued by Member States to their citizens. In this way she responded to a letter from the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in which he called on the European Commission to introduce a standardised vaccination certificate to facilitate travel within the European Union bloc.
At the same time, some Member States of the European Union will already or soon issue their own certificates to citizens vaccinated against Covid-19. On 21 January, Iceland became the first European country to provide Covid-19 vaccination certificates to its citizens who received two doses of the vaccine. Iceland will recognise similar vaccination certificates issued by any EU or Schengen country.
This week, two other Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Sweden, announced that they would make available digital passports that would not only allow vaccinated citizens to travel but also dine in restaurants and attend events such as concerts and festivals.
Spain is also optimistic and supports the idea of a health passport. The Portuguese interior minister has also said that issuing vaccination passports would be an easy task than implementing the anti-pandemic prohibition measures. On the same wavelength is Cyprus, which announced that it would abolish health requirements for travellers, such as quarantine, that could prove that they had been vaccinated.
Poland also released a digital vaccine passport last month. Citizens receiving two doses of the vaccine receive a confirmation document with a unique QR code, which is available from the traveller's personal health account.
The World Health Organisation agrees with this idea, which is also working on a vaccination certification solution that can be developed on a global scale. The WHO's position is that vaccination passports would be more useful than current protocols, which certify that someone has recovered from the disease and has antigens.
