GERMAN TRAVEL and tourism group TUI said demand for holidays in North Africa was recovering, as it reported a smaller than expected second-quarter loss.

Tour operators such as Europe’s largest TUI Travel, controlled by TUI, and Thomas Cook were hit hard last year as European tourists shied away from North African destinations like Tunisia and Egypt following uprisings. Tourists are now returning, though numbers are not expected to recover to pre-uprising levels until next year or even longer for Egypt.

Tour operators are also battling a drop of about 30 per cent in bookings to Greece from Germans, the world’s biggest spenders on foreign holidays, who have been put off by anti-German sentiment following the country’s financial bailout.

TUI reported a second-quarter loss of €224 million. It confirmed an outlook for moderate turnover growth and a slight improvement in underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation for the fiscal year to end-September.

It said this would be driven by TUI Travel, which said it expected a strong summer showing. – (Reuters)