Thomas Cook

Sofia. For the first six months of 2018, we have over EUR 1.3 billion in revenue, which is 9.7% more than last year, Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said in an interview with Focus News Agency about the summer tourist season.

Thomas Cook is abandoning its raucous "Club 18-30" brand to target an image-conscious audience wanting more stylish holidays, the British tour operator said on Thursday.

Thomas Cook, set up in 1841 and a pioneer of package holidays, said demand for holidays in Turkey, Greece and Egypt would help it meet forecasts this year.

Europe’s largest travel group TUI said summer bookings for Turkey were recovering, echoing comments by rival Thomas Cook and adding to hopes that pressure on profit margins for tour operators may ease.

The majority of Germans are looking to take their holidays closer to home next summer, with Greece being a favorite, even though exotic destinations continue to be alluring, a German newspaper has reported.

“Greece was a destination in the Mediterranean that stood out this summer. Thomas Cook’s bookings for Greek destinations rose 24% in the summer of 2017 compared to the summer of 2016”, said Martin Ratchford, from the tour operator Thomas Cook’s financial team

Travel demand for Turkey seems to be coming back, while tourists have continued to pile into Spain over the last two years due to security concerns around other summer destinations such as Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey, the chief executive of the European tourism group TUI has said. 

The latest of a series of positive articles on Greek tourism from Germany comes from Frakfurter Allgemeine (FAZ). In an extensive piece that focuses on the top tour operators in the country, FAZ dubs Greece as the top tourist destination.

Britain's Thomas Cook said a visible recovery continues in bookings for Turkey and Egypt, although it echoed concerns raised by rival tour operator TUI over the market for travel by British tourists on May 18, saying that competition at home had slowed growth, Reuters has reported. 

European travel and tourism giant TUI has reiterated its target of reaching at least 10 percent growth this year after seeing solid demand for winter and summer bookings, despite lower demand for Turkey and North Africa.

The German Alltours tour operator has a 50% increase in reservations for Greece following the trend of the other German tour operators. A similar increase can be seen in reservations for Bulgaria and Spain, while Turkey’s reservations have plunged almost 50% .