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TUI upbeat despite a £30m forex toll
19.05.09
The fall in the pound against the euro cost TUI Travel £30 million this year but the holidays group is still optimistic it will have a good summer.
TUI made a loss of £289 million in the first half of the year, a result that was no worse than expected, but was exacerbated by the foreign exchange effect.
Travel companies usually lose money over the winter and race into profit later.
Chief executive Peter Long is tentatively optimistic about the future.
"My sense is we are bottoming out from those horrible days when everyone wondered what was going on. We are back to the confidence levels of 12 months ago," he said.
Long reckons that most Brits still regard the annual holiday as being an essential.
"When we look at our customers, they have got more money due to lower mortgage and energy costs. Clearly that is offset by job security concerns," he added.
This means they are booking later than usual. Travellers who were planning to go to Mexico are now heading to Egypt, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic in the wake of swine flu.
Sales are ahead by 4% to £5.3 billion, allowing the company to lift the interim dividend by 7% to 3p.
