TUI is not ruling out further acquisitions in the tours and activities space as it looks to grow its holiday experiences division further.
During its Q3 2019 earnings release, group chief executive Fritz Joussen says the company would be “ready to invest more if we find the right opportunities.”
TUI acquired Musement almost a year ago with the Italy-based startup becoming part of its Destination Experiences division at the time.
Joussen also says the tours and activities distribution partnership with Ctrip signed in March is currently going live with other strategic partnerships to come.
The moves are part of TUI’s strategy to increase scale in tours and activities with a new digital platform to distribute experiences, both owned and third party to TUI’s customers as well as third-party customers.
In Q3, destination experiences sold increased 92% year-on-year according to the company with turnover up from €143.8 million to €379.7 million year-on-year.
The company also continues to build out its GDN-OTA, its Global Distribution Network platform for hotels and flights.
Joussen talked of the technology stack being designed to accommodate franchisees so that “over time more and more hoteliers can take advantage of our distribution capabilities.”
The development of the digital platforms is part of the company’s move away from traditional tour operating and enabling it to address new markets such as China and the United States.
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The company is also becoming more asset light in the process and disposing of elements of the business which it feels do not offer synergies.
Last week it announced the sale of specialist tour operators Berge & Meer and Boomerang to private equity investor Genui for about €100 million.
Overall in Q3, the group reported turnover of €4.7 billion, up almost 4% year-on-year.
Group EBITA earnings were just over €100 million down from €187 million year-on-year.
Much of the loss was attributed to the Markets & Airlines division which comprises the airline and tour operating businesses.
The division was hit by several factors including the grounding of the MAX Jet aircraft and Brexit uncertainty.