British travellers are paying much more for their holidays, says Tui

‘The trend has been towards higher value or longer holidays with a higher overall holiday budget,’ says tour operator

Mediterranean bliss: a beach near Marseille in the south of France (Simon Calder)

British holidaymakers paid 18 per cent more for their summer holidays in 2022 compared with pre-pandemic prices – and winter spending is going even higher.

The figures have been released by Tui, Britain’s biggest holiday company, in a pre-close statement.

The Anglo-German giant says that in the peak summer months of July and August, bookings were running at 94 per cent of the same spell in 2019.

UK outbound sales outperformed the rest of Europe, running at 104 per cent of 2019 levels through the summer.

“Our current assumption is for a winter programme close to normalised pre-pandemic levels,” Tui said in its statement.

Winter holidays outbound from the UK are selling at 22 per cent more than the last comparable spell, winter 2018-19. The company says the Canaries, Mexico, Egypt and Cape Verde are selling strongly.

But the company warned: “The greatest area of uncertainty will be the impact on consumer confidence, should travel restrictions be reintroduced, should there be further cost inflation volatility and/or an escalation of the war in Ukraine.”

The outgoing chief executive, Fritz Joussen, and his replacement – chief financial officer, Sebastian Ebel – said in a joint statement: “The trend has been towards higher value or longer holidays with a higher overall holiday budget.

“This is encouraging and shows the current importance of holidays and travel experiences in the post-corona era.

“Through the efficiency programmes successfully implemented during the pandemic, we have also significantly and sustainably reduced our cost structure. We are leaner, more digital and more efficient.

“We are pleased to see flight disruption, predominately experienced in the UK throughout May and June, improve through Q4 [July to September], although still at elevated levels.”

Earlier in the summer Tui cancelled the holidays of tens of thousands of customers from Manchester airport due to severe ground handling problems.