The TUI Group has its origins in northern Germany in the 1960s – today the group is known worldwide. How a small German joint venture became the largest tourism company in the world.
• Scharnow, Dr. Tigges, Hummel and Touropa founded the tour operator TUI in 1968
• Expansion began in 1995 with the founding of TUI Nederland
• The pandemic: TUI will make a loss of 2.5 billion euros in 2021
The TUI Group, headquartered in Hanover, is the largest tourism company in the world and manages around 1,600 travel agencies, five airlines with around 150 aircraft, over 400 hotels and 16 cruise ships under its roof. With this offer, the group serves around 180 target areas worldwide.
In 1968, Touristik Union International – TUI – was founded
The history of this giant in the travel industry began in Germany in 1968, when the small tour operators Scharnow, Dr. Tigges, Hummel and Touropa merged to form the Touristik Union International – TUI for short. In the same year, TUI sent the bundled services of Scharnow, Dr. Tigges, Hummel and Touropa attracted as many as 200,000 Germans on trips to Mallorca and, according to reports from WirtschaftsWoche, have since then steadily contributed to ensuring that the Spanish island remains a popular travel destination for Germans.
Expansion: 1970 to 2000 are years of enormous growth
In 1970, TUI began its years of taking over or participating in many other tour operators, and by 1974 the company was already recording sales worth over one million marks. In 1977, TUI acquired a stake in the RIU hotel brand, which still plays an important role today.
The company continued to expand and in 1989 the TUI franchise system was established with the founding of the TUI UrlaubCenter (today: TUI ReiseCenter). Finally, in 1995, TUI began expanding into other countries as part of the founding of TUI Nederland. TUI Deutschland GmbH was officially founded on September 30, 1999.
At the end of the 1990s, TUI became part of the large tourism group Preussag AG as part of a company takeover. In June 2002 it was decided to give the entire Preussag AG the name TUI AG.
TUI Group is the first in the travel industry to value environmental management
TUI AG established itself more and more firmly in the market and continued to grow, so that the group was able to generate sales of 19 billion euros in 2019 under the leadership of CEO Friedrich Joussen. Joussen has held this post since 2013 and is appointed until 2025. He previously served as CEO of Vodafone Germany.
The company is not only the largest tour operator in the world, but is also characterized by having placed value on environmental management since 1990 – and thus as the first in the travel industry: According to Joussen’s information in the 2021 annual report, over 80 percent of TUI’s Hotels have sustainability certification, and in recent years several decisions have been made towards a CO2-efficient aircraft fleet and countless plastic parts have been saved throughout the group.
The pandemic brought TUI major losses in sales
Like many other tour operators, TUI was hit hard by the pandemic and, according to the annual report, even in 2021 its sales were 40 percent less than in the first year of the pandemic in 2020. Overall, TUI made a loss of 2.5 billion euros in 2021, which was still 21 percent better than last year. Joussen comments on the financial developments during the pandemic in the 2021 annual report as follows: “The market is intact; the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed that […] We want, we can and we will find our way back to economic strength. We are working on this with all our might. The new TUI will be leaner, more digital and more efficient. But it will continue to set standards in tourism, in terms of quality, innovation and sustainability. Tourism is and remains a strong growth market […].”
Olga Rogler / editorial team finanzen.net