British holidaymakers have faced more uncertainty than many other Europeans in recent months, the boss of the UK's largest tour operator said.
TUI chief executive Friedrich Joussen said that UK travellers had been put off by changing policies from Boris Johnson's Government – singling out the decision to add Portugal to the list of green travel destinations in mid May before removing it in early June.
“You had Portugal on the green list and then Portugal off the green list, so the predictability of decisions I think was not very high. When you change the programme so often, then people cancel,” he added.
He said the cost of PCR tests was also putting off customers.
Data revealed by TUI showed that, on all but a handful of days since mid-January, UK travellers cancelled more travel for summer 2021 than they booked.
In Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, the three other countries that TUI released data for, bookings had been ahead of cancellations throughout most of this period.
“The difference between the UK and the other countries is a little bit of the uncertainty,” Mr Joussen said.
TUI said on Thursday that its revenue had risen by more than 800 per cent to £465 million in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier.
Earnings loss before income taxes narrowed from £1.3 billion to £717 million.
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