TUI has announced a major update to its customers as the coronavirus crisis bulldozes onwards. There are currently 1,431,900 cases of the virus globally, with 55,949 cases in the UK. Last month the FCO urged all Britons to avoid non-essential travel worldwide for 30 days, however, officials took a further step this weekend.
The alternations to the programme are as follows:
TUI beach holidays travelling up to and including 14 May will no longer operate.
Marella Cruise holidays travelling up to and including 31 May will no longer operate.
TUI River Cruise, due to launch last month, will now commence on the 26 November.
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TUI insisted they wanted to return to running the holidays as soon as possible but needed to follow the latest travel advice.
The holiday company pointed out that it was impossible to predict how matters would progress.
“We are constantly monitoring the situation and will start taking people on holiday again as soon as we are able to do so,” said TUI.
“At this point in time, nobody can accurately predict when that will be, so, for the time being, we will keep a close eye on our programme and continue to amend and adapt timings in line with the latest global travel advice.
“We will update our customers as soon as we can of any changes to their holidays.
“We, like other travel companies, want to travel again as soon as we possibly can and will do so in line with government advice.”
TUI reminded its customers that their staff were working hard to help to those impacted.
The company said: “Our customer teams are working extremely hard to contact everyone affected, however changes in ways of working and the closure of our retail stores have impacted the speed at which this can happen.
“And have also made it more difficult for our customers to reach us. We do understand this may be frustrating but we’d like to assure everyone that we will be in touch as soon as we can.”
TUI customers can swap to another TUI package holiday for free.
TUI explained: “Customers who have a booking impacted by these changes will be able to amend their holiday to any other TUI package holiday on sale for free via manage my booking on our website.
“Customers who booked in retail should wait for us to contact them to discuss their options.”
Nigel Frith, a senior market analyst at www.asktraders.com commented in the news: “With the news that TUI are cancelling all holidays booked until 14th May, it puts into perspective how much everyone doesn’t know what the future holds and it wouldn’t be surprising if they extended the ban until further into the summer,” he said.
“Compared to other airlines, TUI offer both cruise packages and long haul flights, the virus may still be active or may even be hitting its peak in other countries, that’s a problem that should be avoided altogether. ?
“Cancelling holidays makes total sense considering the tour operator announced that staff working hours would be cut between 30-50 percent to avoid redundancies. That way, costs can be managed and more money will be saved in order to protect the business. It’ll be a very interesting few weeks for the travel industry as a whole.
