TUI Group, Europe’s leading tour operator, is already reporting very strong demand for this summer and expects its activity to revert to levels last seen in the pre-pandemic period. Greek destinations are among the top options for its customers, TUI officials told Kathimerini newspaper, stressing that for some markets, such as France, Greece is the number 1 choice for this summer’s vacations.

The German tour operator, which brings millions of tourists to Greece every year from many European markets, reported improved financial results on Tuesday for the final quarter of 2021. It also expressed its estimates for 2022, noting it has observed a 22% rise in its average price. It attributes that rise to the more expensive choices of its customers, for example for better rooms and more services.

In a recent interview with Kathimerini, the group’s Executive Chairman Friedrich Joussen forecast that this year TUI visitors to Greece will outnumber those of record year 2019, as he expects TUI will bring 3 million tourists over, against 2.8 million in the last year before the pandemic.

The group reported yesterday it notes “a very strong momentum of bookings for the summer of 2022, which due to the Omicron variant only post a short-term decline in late November and in December. For the time being, there remains a trend in favor of short-term bookings, but confidence in progress toward the ending of the pandemic is growing stronger and holiday bookings are increasing considerably.”

By January 30, 3.5 million TUI customers had already booked a summer 2022 trip, which amounts to 72% of bookings for the summer of 2019 at this point of the year; however, “the rate of new bookings now exceeds 100% of summer 2019 levels, therefore the group anticipates that the summer of 2022 will be near the pre-crisis levels,” added the group.

Regarding prices, TUI announced that “people now make bookings for higher-quality holidays, and have a higher budget for their summer. Therefore the average rates are growing further compared to last year, at a rate of 22%.”

This article was previously published at ekathimerini.com.