CEO of TUI is optimistic for 2021 and expects "a largely normal summer"

Travel group TUI is hopeful about the summer season of 2021, as most European countries have started rolling out vaccines against the coronavirus. The travel group expects “a largely normal summer,” said CEO Fritz Joussen in an interview on Saturday.

“If we have protected the particularly vulnerable groups from contamination, the restrictions worldwide could drop significantly,” said Joussen. He thinks many people will spend more on holidays this year because of the cravings for vacations and leftover travel vouchers from 2020.

The company expects to offer about 80 percent of its usual number of flights again soon. According to the CEO, TUI wants to use all sixteen cruise ships in the coming year as well.

Joussen expects 2021 to become “a year of transition,” partly because the first half of the year is expected to very meager for the travel industry. The tourism sector is not expected to fully recover until 2022.

He notes that companies like TUI can probably show a much faster recovery than the travel industry in general, especially for those companies that focus on business travels. It is expected that most business meetings will continue to be held online in the foreseeable future. But Joussen argues that a holiday experience cannot simply be replaced with a digital solution.