Tour operating company TUI Group has provided an update on its drive to create a single global booking platform.
The Germany-based company said during its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 earnings presentation that it has launched the platform in Belgium with the Netherlands earmarked as the next market for rollout.
Chief executive Sebastian Ebel said TUI is a year and a half into what will be a five-year program for the platform’s development.
He added that while in the past each country had its own technology for “production and access to hoteliers” the idea is to have one platform for sourcing and selling for both B2B and B2C markets.
Ebel also spoke about the single customer database, which the company has developed to enable cross-selling and upselling of airline, hotel, experiences and other ancillary products.
He said TUI will update on results from the data platform around the middle of 2024, adding that it will drive efficiency while also opening up the opportunity for a loyalty program.
Ebel talked a little about the launch of a loyalty initiative for TUI at ITB in Berlin this year based on providing customers with access to services and “convenience products” rather than collecting points.
The company has also launched new distribution platforms for accommodation-only product, flights, tours and cars to support its dynamic packaging ambitions, which Ebel said at ITB would not come at the expense of but be incremental to the core tour operating business.
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In addition to efficiency and distribution cost savings, all of the above initiatives are about bringing more people into TUI’s ecosystem and keeping them there, leading to what Ebel described as increased share of wallet and “customer lifetime value optimization.”
This also includes sales via the company’s mobile application, which has increased share from 2% in 2019 to 5% in 2023. Online sales decreased slightly from 48% to 45% over the same period, and the offline retail sales remained at 50%.
For the full-year 2023, TUI reported revenue of almost €21 billion, up 25% year over year, and a 139% increase in EBITDA to €977 million.
Fourth quarter revenue for the group was up 11% to €8.5 billion. EBITDA for the holiday experiences division, which includes TUI Musement, hotels and resorts and cruises, increased 58% to €493 million.