TUI boss Ebel demands reform: travel expenses threaten to explode!

TUI boss Ebel demands reform: travel expenses threaten to explode!

Kyllini, Griechenland - The German travel security fund (DRSF) is the focus of Sebastian Ebel's criticism, the CEO of TUI. According to the current reports of News38.de this fund considerably charges the tour operators. The DRSF was introduced after Thomas Cook's bankruptcy in 2019 and the Corona pandemic to secure travelers in the event of a travel cancellation.

EBEel criticizes the principle of the fund, since large travel providers like TUI have to continuously deposit in the DRSF. Despite the full health insurers of the fund, he sees the need that TUI has to make one percent of their sales as a contribution every year. This adds up to a medium double -digit million amount, which in his opinion affects the competitiveness of the package tours and ultimately passed on to consumers.

criticism of the DRSF and reform proposals

During the annual conference of travel agency cooperation Best in Kyllini in Greece, Ebel expressed that he was calling for the payments to the DRSF to get the attractiveness of package tours. He described the package tour as an "export hit" and emphasized that high costs and over -regulation represent a threat to its importance in Germany.

EBEL estimates the price disadvantage for package tours due to bureaucratic guidelines at three to five percent. In order to improve this situation, he sees the need to reduce the stress for organizers and to avoid additional obligations as part of the reform of the flat -rate directive. He appeals to tourist associations to use the reduction in DRSF contributions.

expansion plans and competitiveness

In addition, TUI plans to expand into new source markets in South America and Asia, where the growth of the tourist sector is stronger than in Europe. As part of this expansion, dynamically parceled package tours are to be offered via a central platform. EBEL sees this as essential to secure competitiveness and to promote the popularity of package tours in Germany.

So far, TUI has stored nine percent of his flat -rate travel turnover as security in the DRSF and pays an annual fee of an annual fee. EBEL is convinced that the fund volume is large enough to be able to forego the annual fee in the future. In addition, he rejects speculations about different views that are said to have led to Tui's exit from the German Travel Association, as "bullshit", which illustrates a clear positioning in the industry.

To address the challenges, TUI is regularly in contact with political decision -makers in Brussels and Berlin to do lobbying and bring about changes. In this context, EBEL appeals to consider the introduction of a security obligation for individual services as less important and to focus on practical solutions to relieve the organizers. A new approach to travel money insurance could exist in a step model with which customers can decide which security they need.

The situation around the DRSF remains exciting, since it affects not only the tour operators, but also the consumers directly.