Tunisia attack to cost Tui up to ?40m

1	The terrorist attack in Tunisia in June will cost Tui between 35m and 40m this year, the tour operator said, adding that it hoped to absorb the impact and still increase profits by 12.5-15 per cent.
2	The attack on the resort of Port El Kantaoui, near Sousse, left 38 people dead, 33 of whom were Tui customers.
3	Since then, Tui has cancelled all holidays to Tunisia from the UK, Belgium and Holland.
4	"A human tragedy completely overshadowed our quarter, the most horrific event that I and my company have ever had to deal with," said Peter Long, Tui's chief executive, as the Anglo-German travel group reported third-quarter numbers on Thursday.
5	"On that day, 38 people lost their lives while many were injured," he added.
6	"Thirty-three of those who died were our customers; 30 from the UK, 2 from Germany and one from Belgium. Most of the injured were also our customers."
7	Mr Long said Tui had taken a 10m hit from the tragedy in the third quarter and would lose another 25m to 30m in the fourth quarter, as a result of its 24 hotels and properties standing empty or at low occupancy.
8	Tui, which owns the First Choice and Thomson brands, had been sending just shy of 500,000 tourists to Tunisia each year, roughly 3 per cent of its annual total.
9	Last month the UK tour operator Thomas Cook said the Tunisian tragedy had cost it roughly 25m.
10	Mr Long said Tui customers had been quickly repatriated and many of them had rebooked holidays to the Balearic and Canary islands, Cyprus, Spain, Cape Verde and Bulgaria.
11	The Greek crisis had an impact on Tui in June and early July, but Mr Long said bookings had recovered and were ahead of last year.
12	Greece accounts for 10 per cent of Tui's business and the company manages and leases 27 hotels there.
13	Mr Long said he expected the company would be able to deliver underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation growth of 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent for the current year.
14	The group reported a 6 per cent rise in sales for the third quarter to 5bn, and an 18 per cent rise in underlying ebita to 194m, or 185m when accounting for the earlier timing of Easter and foreign exchange rates.
15	Simon French, an analyst at Cenkos, described the Tui results as "reassuringly solid", noting that profits at Tui's hotels and resorts division were up 22m and that there had been a 21m profit rise in the cruises division.