Hanover, 14 January 2021

TUI Group focuses on growth in Tours & Activities

  • Over 170,000 experiences available through a unique combination of digital platform and on-site delivery
  • Recent months used for development: Contactless, digital service is customer favourite and will be continuously expanded

TUI, the world's leading tourism group, is strengthening its commitment to Tours & Activities across all distribution channels. A total of over 170,000 excursions, activities, tickets and transfers are now available to partners, travel agents and customers in more than 140 countries.

"The global Tours & Activities market will start to recover as early as 2021, and the previous record year of 2019 will be eclipsed by 2023," said TUI Musement CEO David Schelp. "Up until now the market has been characterised by a multitude of small, very local suppliers – a large brand like TUI can provide security and reliability as a common platform."

"We have actively used the last few months to further optimise experiences for customers and partners," said Alessandro Petazzi, Chief Growth Officer of TUI Musement. "We have a clear goal; to make more choice more easily accessible to more people." Experiences during a trip are popular, but in recent months there has also been growth in bookings for activities in customers’ hometowns or regions.

"Another trend we see is the growing popularity and demand for digital service via our apps and websites. Our digital service has been expanded in a targeted manner and is now one of the main drivers of customer satisfaction, with the personal, digital service via chat being a customer favourite." Schelp adds.

In addition to digital service, the experiences themselves have also been adapted according to the current situation: 85 percent of all experiences can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before they start. With hygiene and safety standards above the current market standard, a quick restart will be possible during 2021.

All experiences can be booked at tui.com/excursions and via the TUI App.

About TUI Musement

TUI Musement is a global Tours & Activities business that combines scalable digital platforms with personalised in-destination service by local teams, to deliver products in three main business lines:

  • Experiences: Excursions, activities & tickets

  • Transfers: Between airports, hotels and ports

  • Tours: Multi-day itineraries encompassing flights, hotels, experiences and transfers

Available in all major city and sun & beach destinations, products are developed in-house or sourced from leading travel businesses. They are distributed to customers, including the 20+ million TUI customers, through the TUI websites and apps, in-destination local teams and B2B partners, including some of the world's leading OTAs, tour operators, airlines, hotels, travel agencies and cruise lines. TUI Musement is one of the major growth areas of the TUI Group.

About TUI Group

TUI Group is a leading global tourism group and operates worldwide. The Group is headquartered in Germany. TUI shares are listed on the FTSE 250, an index of the London Stock Exchange, on the regulated market of the Hanover Stock Exchange and on the Open Market segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The TUI Group offers integrated services from a single source for its 19 million customers.

The entire tourism value chain is covered under one roof. This includes over 400 hotels and resorts with premium brands such as RIU, TUI Blue and Robinson and 16 cruise ships, from the MS Europa and the MS Europa 2 in the luxury class and expedition ships to the Mein Schiff fleet of TUI Cruises and cruise ships at Marella Cruises in Great Britain. The Group also includes leading tour operator brands and online marketing platforms across Europe, 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, cruises via successful joint ventures and activities in holiday destinations, TUI is increasingly focusing on the expansion of digital platforms. The Group is transforming itself into a digital company.

Global responsibility for sustainable economic, ecological and social action is at the core of our corporate culture. 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 with projects in 25 countries. It thus supports holiday destinations in their development.