German leisure Group and cruise ship operator, TUI continued to expect a successful full year 2025 and reaffirmed its targets and outlook after six months.
The second quarter (January to March) of its fiscal year heralded a good result, despite the economic challenges in Europe.
Group revenue for the reporting period amounted to €3.71 bill (previous year: €3.68 bill).
TUI Group CEO, Sebastian Ebel, said: “The environment was challenging. And the second half of the year will also remain demanding for the overall economy in Europe.
“Our integrated and diversified business model with its activities in Europe and increasingly also outside Europe, proved its worth again in the second quarter.
“The Hotel, Cruises and activities business benefited from strong tour operator and travel sales. Our focus is now on the important summer business. We are offering more and more products in more destinations for existing and new customers.
“In times of economic and political challenges, we are focusing on securing margins, driving forward the transformation of the Markets + Airline business (tour operators, retail and TUI Airline) and consistently reducing costs.
“Travel agencies remain an important partner and distribution channel. We are expanding our tour operator business and travel agency sales, as well as our own app, in particular with our dynamically compiled product offerings.
“We see that customers appreciate the flexibility and significantly greater choice. More individuality, flexibile options and the proven security of package holidays are the strengths of dynamically sourced travel offerings. This enables us to optimise the customer lifetime value and offer customers more frequent leisure activities and trips with TUI all year-round – from summer holidays and city breaks to event activities.
“We are continuing to expand the synergies from our integrated business model and are leveraging the sales strength of our Markets + Airline division strategically and operationally. This will further strengthen the already highly successful Holiday Experiences, as well as the overall profitability of the Group. Our global platforms are increasingly helping us to achieve this,” he said.
Mathias Kiep, TUI Group CFO, added: “We are in a good financial position as a Group. We were able to further reduce our net debt. In March 2025, we successfully refinanced our central financing instrument, the sustainability-linked revolving credit facility (RCF).
“The new RCF, which has a term of five years and matures in March, 2030, has a volume of around €1.9 bill and improves our financial flexibility and liquidity position,” he said.
Cruises continued its strong operating performance in FY2Q25. Underlying EBIT rose to €82 mill, reaching a record level (previous year: €70.1 mill).
The increase was driven by a strong booking environment and the commissioning of two new ships at TUI Cruises.
Occupancy fell by 2 percentage points year-on-year to 96%, due to the Suez effect and the associated route changes.
These also led to a slightly lower average rate across all cruise brands of €218 (previous year: €221).
The number of available passenger days for cruises is up 23% thanks to two new additions to the TUI Cruises fleet.
Against a growth backdrop, the Group confirmed its guidance for the 2025 financial year:
- A 5-10% increase in revenue, compared with the previous year.
- An increase in underlying EBIT of 7-10%, compared with the previous year, driven in particular by expectations for Summer 2025 with a €32 mill phasing effect from Easter holidays shifting to Q3.
TUI is pursuing a strategy to accelerate profitable growth aiming at making TUI’s business more agile and cost-efficient and achieving greater speed in market launches and global expansion.
This will generate additional value for customers, shareholders and employees, the Group said.
In the medium term, TUI therefore continued to expect:
- Average underlying EBIT growth of around 7-10% CAGR.
- A net debt ratio of well below 1.0x.
- With the recent upgrades of its credit ratings by the rating agencies, the Group has achieved its goal of returning to pre-pandemic levels.
