Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Wednesday the 6th of June and a good day to take the temperature of the holiday industry. And that's because Europe's biggest tour operator, Tui, has just reported its results. This is a massive continent-wide Anglo-German firm,

and so therefore what they are saying is a pretty good example of what is actually happening.

And just looking back at the financial year, which ended for them in September,

well, they've more than doubled profits. The number of

customers rose by 14% to 19 million. But those are kind of numbers that you would expect, given the

recovery from COVID. What's more instructive, I think, is what we found out about how people are looking ahead.

And here's the evidence.

Bookings for the current winter are 11% up on the same time last year.

Travelers are paying an extra 5% more.

And that pattern is continuing into summer 2024. Bookings currently, yeah, these are

early days, but they're up 13%. Average selling prices, 4% higher. Now, you might think, well, 4%

that's neither here nor there. That's basically inflation, isn't it? Well, except that last summer,

two is prices were 27% up on 2019 levels. So the average holiday maker in 2024 is paying one third more

than they did before the pandemic. And if you want to find examples of places where the figure is even

higher, look no further than Greece and in particular five-star hotels. That's according to

Sebastian Abel. He's the chief executive of Tuwe. Now, there are many other factors at work, of course, as well.

The terrible conflict in the Middle East and, well, Mr Abel told us that there were six weeks

of lower bookings for Egypt. The people who were booked there still went there, but he said after Christmas we're back

on a growth pattern because, bluntly, Egypt is a very high value destination. It's one of the

top three of winter destinations for Tuwi alongside the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. Interestingly,

Sebastian Abel said there was no significant change in customer behaviour after the wildfires across the Mediterranean in 2023.

You'll recall this summer, particularly in Rhodes, but also in other parts of the Mediterranean,

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