Tour operator’s plans to cut costs by 30 per cent will impact 8,000 roles

Tui, the world’s largest tour operator, plans to cut costs by 30 per cent as part of an effort to survive a crisis the group described as the worst the tourism industry has ever faced.
The Hanover-based company said on Wednesday that the cost-cutting would affect 8,000 positions — either through cuts or the shelving of recruitment plans. Investment would be scaled back as would the company’s presence in certain countries.
Fritz Joussen, Tui’s chief executive, vowed to “reinvent the holiday” by offering more local destinations and different travel seasons.
The company’s report said: “The tourism industry has weathered a number of macroeconomic shocks throughout the most recent decades, however the Covid-19 pandemic is unquestionably the greatest crisis the industry and Tui has ever faced.”
And with many major economies only slowly emerging from lockdown — and the global economy in recession — the immediate outlook for the travel industry is grim.
The World Travel and Tourism Council warned on Tuesday that without a global set of health and testing standards for airlines, hotels and travel companies, consumers will not feel safe to travel again.
Tui was hit early on in the crisis when an outbreak of coronavirus was discovered in one of the hotels it works with in Tenerife in February.
The travel company stopped the majority of its operations in early March and applied for a German state loan to see it through the crisis. It said on Wednesday that it had total cash and available loans of €2.1bn.
Its share price has slumped 73 per cent since the beginning of the year.