TUI’s Big Play in Tours and Activities
Photo Credit: The Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Musement, which TUI bought this year, offers walking tours of the palace. Richard Penn/Flickr / Richard Penn
Skift Take
When someone with the scale of TUI gets serious about something, you know it's a big deal. Now that it has got the right technology, it should be an easy win for a company with such a massive customer base.
European travel giant TUI Group wants to play an even bigger role in the growing tours and activities market after completing two big acquisitions in 2018 and seeing turnover in the sector increase 50 percent.
The company, which already had a presence in the market bought Hotelbeds’ destination services division in March and online platform Musement in September, both of which will help aid its expansion.
TUI considers itself to be one of the leaders within the sector and now offers around six million tours and activities a year, 25 million transfers, in 49 countries with a workforce of 9,000 people.
Expanding in the sector will in part drive TUI’s plans for 10 percent profit growth per year in 2019 and 2020. It is central to the company’s overall tourism strategy.
At a global level, revenue could hit $183 billion by 2020 and in in its most recent financial year TUI saw its tours and activities program generate $347 million (€303.5 million) – up from $231 million
