Tui Suisse jumps into the breach for FTI
Published: Wednesday, Jul 10th 2024, 10:50
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Travel provider Tui Suisse is interested in the competitor's capacities in the wake of FTI's insolvency. "We were on the move very quickly at various destinations and offered support there at short notice and looked at how we could work together," explained Tui Suisse CEO Philipp von Czapiewski at a media event on Wednesday.
The specialists from Tui Suisse quickly contacted hoteliers in Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Greece and the United Arab Emirates in particular in order to take over hotel capacity from FTI. "We have added 300,000 hotel places at these destinations," says von Czapiewski. Some of these had previously been offered by FTI, but not all of them.
Although local negotiations were somewhat faster than usual in the wake of the FTI insolvency, they were no different to the usual procedure in the travel agency industry. "Every year, we secure certain capacities and contingents and therefore negotiate with the local players," he said.
"But especially in the wake of the FTI insolvency, it is of course also important that we take over contingents that we can continue to operate in the long term," says von Czapiewski. Tui Suisse always asks itself what it needs in the long term, how it can grow and develop locally.
He also did not rule out takeovers of FTI hotels. But first, he said, it was necessary to get an overview of what was happening with the hotels and who owned them in the first place. This is because hotels are often not owned by the travel providers themselves, but they are simply contractually entrusted with the operation of the hotels.
Von Czapiewski emphasized, however, that it was not only about helping out FTI partners, but also customers who would otherwise have been stranded. Over the last few weeks in particular, we have been working hard to support our partners and find attractive rebooking alternatives. That was our focus," he said.
While Tui is thus snapping up certain capacities from FTI, it appears to have no interest in the Migros Group's travel provider Hotelplan, which is up for sale. "We are not commenting on this in principle," said von Czapiewski. However, he added: "Our focus is on growth and further development. We have a very clear strategy and can continue to develop under our own steam."
©Keystone/SDA
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