Hanover, 6 December 2018

TUI Holiday Atlas: Europeans want to spent winter in the sun

The Canary Islands are number one

  • Spain remains number one tourist destination this winter season
  • Egypt is celebrating a significant comeback in the 2018/19 winter season
  • Cape Verde islands in the top five of trend destinations this year’s winter season

Many Europeans fly to the sun over Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The Canary Islands are especially popular for the winter holidays, with mild to warm temperatures almost guaranteed. This was revealed by the 2018 winter season TUI Holiday Atlas, which reviews the most popular holiday destinations for Europeans. Gran Canaria occupies the top spot. Tenerife and Lanzarote are also in the top five, which is completed by Phuket in Thailand and Hurghada in Egypt.

Every year, 20 million tourists travel with TUI to more than 100 destinations throughout Europe. The TUI Holiday Atlas provides an overview of country-specific preferences. Just like last year, Finns, Danes, Norwegians and Swedes have chosen Gran Canaria as their number one destination. Brits, the Irish and Belgians prefer to travel to Tenerife. Germans are also fans of the Canary sunshine, preferably on Fuerteventura, while the French tend to head for Lanzarote. Austrians and the Swiss venture further afield. For holidaymakers from these Alpine counties Malé in the Maldives is the top sunbathing destination. The Dutch are equally enthusiastic about long-distance travel - their absolute dream destination during the European winter is the Antilles island of Curacao. Tourists from Poland on the other hand love to visit Antalya in Turkey.

The TUI Holiday Atlas shows clear trends for this winter season: Spain remains the undisputed number one tourist destination, while Egypt is celebrating a significant comeback in the 2018/19 winter season. The country on the Nile takes second place overall before Thailand. Everywhere people seem to prefer holidays in the heat. Only the Dutch and Germans seem to enjoy travelling to wintery Austria. German tourists are also the only group of holidaymakers happy to spend their holidays in their own country. In third place just behind Spain and Egypt, Germans prefer travelling within their own borders. In terms of trend destinations, the Cape Verde islands are still on the rise. The archipelago in the Atlantic takes fourth place in the list of most popular holiday destinations. 

An increasing number of travelers, especially from Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, appreciate the mild climate and sun of the African island state. Mexico is the fifth most popular holiday destination this winter, mainly due to very high demand from the UK and Nordic countries.

About TUI Group

The TUI Group is one of the world's leading tourism groups and operates worldwide. The Group is headquartered in Germany. TUI shares are listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, in the regulated market of the Lower Saxony Stock Exchange in Hanover and in the FTSE 250, an index of the London Stock Exchange. TUI Group offers its 19 million customers integrated services from a single source and forms the entire tourism value chain under one roof. The Group owns over 400 hotels and resorts with premium brands such as RIU, TUI Blue and Robinson and 16 cruise ships, ranging from the MS Europa and MS Europa 2 in the luxury class and expedition ships in the HANSEATIC class to the Mein Schiff fleet of TUI Cruises and cruise ships operated by Marella Cruises in the UK. The Group also includes Europe's leading tour operator brands and online marketing platforms, for example for hotel-only or flight-only offers, five airlines with more than 130 modern medium- and long-haul aircraft and around 1,200 travel agencies. In addition to expanding its core business with hotels and cruises via successful joint ventures and activities in vacation destinations, TUI is increasingly focusing on the expansion of digital platforms. The Group is transforming itself into a global tourism platform company.

Global responsibility for sustainable economic, environmental and social action is at the heart of our corporate culture. With projects in 25 countries, the TUI Care Foundation initiated by TUI focuses on the positive effects of tourism, on education and training and on strengthening environmental and social standards. In this way, it supports the development of vacation destinations. The globally active TUI Care Foundation initiates projects that create new opportunities for the next generation.