TUI AG

Thousands of tourists and residents fleeing a wildfire on Rhodes huddled in schools and shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats from beaches to safer areas of the Greek island when flames moved towards resorts and coastal villages.

Next month's 7th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum will bring together top executives and industry leaders from the international cruise sector to discuss the challenges and potential of the industry and highlight the importance of the region and the need for new destinations to keep pace with the industry's rapid growth and emerging trends.

Greek flag carrier Aegean Airlines is seeking its further expansion abroad through a number of targeted moves.

Greece's leading airline is seeking to land state-subsidized services out of Skopje and Ochrid airports in North Macedonia to European destinations.

Greek hoteliers have signed contracts with major foreign tour operators with price hikes between 10% and 15% for the 2023 season.

European tour operator TUI said on Wednesday Greece and Cyprus are among its main travel destinations this summer, adding that its program will start on June 17.

According to the CEO of TUI Germany, Marek Andryszak, the travel plan also includes the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and Portugal, while there will also be holiday trips to Croatia and Bulgaria.

Travel operator TUI has canceled all foreign holidays for British tourists until July 1 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sending shares in the German group down 6% on Friday.

Greece is going to battle it out with Spain and Portugal to attract the biggest possible share of tourists from major markets this summer, especially Germany, as the big German tour operators have started aggressively promoting packages to Greece and the Balearics - the islands that have done better at combating Covid-19 than continental Spain.

The Chinese unit of Germany's TUI, the world's biggest tourism group, said on Sunday it has resumed offering holiday packages in China and urged the European Union to lift travel restrictions in place to curb the coronavirus.

The suspension of the operations and payments of major international tour operators such as Tui AG and the FTI Group due to the coronavirus epidemic are creating a cash drought for Greek tourism and threatening to devastate the season's prospects.

Cancellations of bookings at Greek hotels for the months after April are coming thick and fast, while major tour operators such as Tui are citing "force majeure" for its suspension of payments and the list of cruise operators and airlines canceling their plans is growing.