Tui to restructure around 'global curated leisure marketplace' model

Tui added its retail and direct, online sales channels would be place "at the centre of the group’s growth ambitions".

In the UK and Ireland, following the departure of managing director Andrew Flintham, who will move to British Airways Holidays at the end of October, chief marketing officer Neil Swanson will take over as managing director of Tui UK and Ireland.

There are also new leads in Tui’s Belgium and Netherlands region, its Germany, Austria and Switzerland region, and its Nordics region.

What does the future of Tui look like?

The announcement ties up several loose ends at Tui, which earlier this year sought to grow its partnerships with budget carriers to provide flight stock for more dynamic package sales.

This was quickly followed by an agreement to start dynamically packaging Ryanair flights and using them as the basis of more than a million additional package sales.

Then in August, Tui Group chief executive Sebastian Ebel said the group was beginning to reap the rewards of its investment in dynamic packaging and efforts to increase its geographical spread.

Back in the present, Tui said its markets and airline segment would now align with Tui’s wider organisational structure, processes and priorities.

A new operating model for its tour operator will create "a fully integrated function marketplace" for Tui’s core business, with global scale.

Its new expansion businesses division, meanwhile, will focus on new product categories and markets.

’Next step in our transformation’

Ebel said on Thursday (26 September): “We have reported double-digit growth for the eighth consecutive quarter in underlying ebit (earnings before interest and tax) in August.

"This demonstrates the strength of our business strategy. We will accelerate our growth plans and are therefore now taking the next step in our transformation.

"Markets + Airline plays a key role in this: In addition to being a successful package tour operator with a strong brand, we will offer a growing portfolio of products, services and destinations.

"The aim is to sell more products to more customers globally throughout the whole year. The Markets + Airline transformation will help us to grow our TUI smile globally.”