TUI Group recorded turnover growth of 16.4 per cent, to €4.94 billion, for the third quarter of financial 2017.

This is up from a figure of €4.24 billion for the same period last year.

Including foreign exchange translation, turnover rose by 12.6 per cent to €4.78 billion.

Underlying EBITA climbed 18.7 per cent to €191 million.

“This will be another good year for TUI Group.

“We are delivering growth and reiterating our guidance.

“We expect turnover growth of more than three per cent, our underlying operating result is expected to grow by at least ten per cent1 in the full year,” said TUI Group chief executive Fritz Joussen.

TUI Group continued its transformation into as a fully integrated tourism group during the period.

Joussen added: “We successfully completed the sale of our Travelopia specialist tour operator business in quarter three and the remaining stake in Hapag-Lloyd AG in July 2017.

“This completes the transformation of the former diversified conglomerate to tourism group TUI.

“The rebranding has also been very successful in all countries and has strengthened TUI both at the global and local levels.

The UK will be the last market to roll out the rebranding in autumn 2017.

Joussen continued: “Our clear focus on the high-growth and high-margin hotels and resorts and cruises segments has proven to be the right strategy and has been very successful.

“The digitalisation of our businesses and services is progressing well.

“We are embracing new technologies such as Blockchain, and have already started to apply it in our hotel businesses.”

TUI was and remains prepared for shifts in demand for individual destinations.

Lower demand for Turkey was already taken into account when planning the summer 2017 programme, as demand for Turkey had declined as early as 2016.

This factor was fully offset by additional offerings to alternative destinations.

However, late bookings reflect a renewed popularity of Turkey and North African destinations among customers.

Joussen: “This good performance reflects our successful transformation and focus on own hotel and cruise brands.

“We have significantly reduced the seasonal swing of our business.

“For the first time, we have delivered a positive operating result for the first nine months of a financial year.

“TUI is in excellent shape about to fulfil its objectives.”