TUI AG
Encyclopedia
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
company headquartered in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
. Until 2001 it was an industrial and transportation company named Preussag AG, which in the mid-1990s decided to reinvent itself as a tourism, shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
, and logistics
Logistics
Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...
company. It sold off many of its industrial concerns and purchased several major travel and transportation firms.
Today it is one of the world's largest tourist firms with interests across Europe. It owns travel agencies
Travel agency
A travel agency is a retail business that sells travel related products and services to customers on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, sightseeing tours and package holidays that combine several products...
, hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s, airline
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
s, cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
s and retail stores. Major subsidiaries
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
include TUI AG Airlines, the largest holiday fleet in Europe as well as UK-based tour operators Thomson and First Choice. Its common brand TUIfly
TUIfly
TUIfly Vermarktungs GmbH is an airline based at Hannover Airport in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The airline offers both charter and scheduled low-cost flights. About 60% of all seats are sold directly, 30% as a part of a TUI holiday package and 10% by other agencies...
encompasses 7 airlines.
TUI AG was also one of the world's largest shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
companies, having its logistics activities bundled within Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag-Lloyd
Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, which in turn owns other subsidiaries such as Hapag-Lloyd Ships and a cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises which is now integrated into TUI AG, Hanover...
AG and concentrated on the shipping sector. Hapag-Lloyd is no longer an operating unit of the business however, a majority stake having been sold to the Albert Ballin consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
of investors in March 2009. Finally, TUI AG has 38.4 percent of the shares, but will execute the option to sell the Hapag stake to Ballin on January 2012, an exit from shipping business and to optimize its tourism business with expansion in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Some data of TUI:
- approx. 3,500 travel agencies
- 79 tour operators in 18 countries
- over 120 aircraft
- 37 incoming agencies in 31 countries
- 12 hotel brand in 28 countries with 285 hotels and around 163,000 beds
- 10 cruise liners
History
- 1968 creation of TUI (Touristik Union International) an association of the medium-sized companies Touropa, Scharnow-Reisen, Hummel Reise and Dr. Tigges-Fahrten.
- 1970 airtours international and TransEuropa integrate to TUI; Creation of ROBINSON Club (with the group Steigenberger)
- from 1972 participation to different hotel brands (et al. Iberotel 1972, RIU 1977, Grecotels 1981)
- 1990 the name of the main tour operator is "TUI Schöne Ferien"
- 1995 Creation of TUI Nederland and TUI Austria
- 1996 Creation of TUI Suisse
- 1996 Creation of TUI Belgium
- 1998 Acquisition of the group Preussag/Hapag-Lloyd and rename to Hapag Touristik Union (HTU)
- 2000 HTU was renamed to TUI Group
- 2001 TUI Group is now 100% subsidiary of Preussag AG
- 2002 Rename of Preussag AG to TUI AG
- from 2002 reorganisation from a mixed company to tourismTourismTourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
company. - 2004 The bank WestLBWestLBWestLB AG is a European commercial bank based in Düsseldorf in Germany which is partly owned by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The letters LB in the name stand for Landesbank. The Landesbanken are a group of state owned banks unique to Germany...
sell their participation (31,4%) from the TUI AG. New shareholders are Spanish investors (Family RiuRIU HotelsRIU Hotels & Resorts is a hotel chain founded by the Riu family as a small holiday firm in 1953 . The RIU Hotels & Resorts chain is still owned by the Riu family's third generation . RIU Hotels & Resorts offer all-inclusive board basis. RIU Hotels & Resorts has more than 100 hotels in 19 countries ...
, Grupo de Empresas Matutes, Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo). - 2005 TUI sells subsidiary VTG AG to Compagnie Européenne de Wagons.
- 2005 The shipping activities are grouped under the Hapag-LloydHapag-LloydHapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd AG, which in turn owns other subsidiaries such as Hapag-Lloyd Ships and a cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises which is now integrated into TUI AG, Hanover...
. With the acquisition of CP ShipsCP ShipsCP Ships was a large Canadian container shipping company, prior to being taken over by Hapag Lloyd in late 2005. CP Ships had its head office in the City of Westminster in London and later in the City Place Gatwick development on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex.The...
it becomes the fourth largest worldwide containerContainerizationContainerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
shippingShippingShipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
company. - 7th of April 2005, was a historic day for the Indian Travel and Tourism industry when a joint venture was signed between the world’s largest travel group, TUI AG and LPTI.
- 2006 TUI AG sells business travel subsidiary TQ3 to BCD Holdings N.V.
- 2007 TUI AG tourism division merges with First Choice Holidays PLC to form TUI Travel PLC
Organisation
On 3 September 2007 the tourism division of TUI AG merged with First Choice Holidays PLC to create TUI Travel PLC, an international leisure travel group listed on the London Stock ExchangeLondon Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
. TUI AG owns 43% of the new company, operating in 180 countries and serving 30m customers. It is headquartered in Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, United Kingdom. It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, with around 155 aircraft and 3500 retail outlets in Europe and employs 50,000 people worldwide. The company mainly serves the leisure travel customer and is organised and managed through four business sectors: Mainstream, Specialist and Emerging Markets, Activity and Online Destination Services. This has now moved full control of TUI's tourism division directly to TUI Travel PLC.
Human rights
The TUI AG has been criticised by human rights groups for helping to fund the Burmese regime. The company was added to the Burma Campaign UK's Dirty List in 2008 for indirectly funding the Burmese regime by selling tours/holidays to the country.Sponsorship
TUI sponsors Fußball-BundesligaFußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
side Hannover 96
Hannover 96
Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96, Hannover or simply 96, is a German association football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony.-Foundation to WWII:...
. The airline branch TUIfly
TUIfly
TUIfly Vermarktungs GmbH is an airline based at Hannover Airport in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony, Germany. The airline offers both charter and scheduled low-cost flights. About 60% of all seats are sold directly, 30% as a part of a TUI holiday package and 10% by other agencies...
's main hub is at Hannover-Langenhagen Airport and it has sponsored the football team since the 2002-2003 season. On 31 March 2011, TUI announced Hannover 96 would be playing "with a smile on their chest" for another 3 years, as it extended the sponsorship contract. When the current sponsor contract runs out, it will make TUI the longest running association with any of the 18 Bundesliga teams, with 12 years as the sponsor. As part of the sponsorship TUI will be the shirt sponsor, as well as having advertisements on the perimeter fencing of the AWD-Arena
AWD-Arena
The AWD-Arena is a football stadium in the district Calenberger Neustadt in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, and competition venue of the German Bundesliga football club Hannover 96....
, Hannover's home stadium. There is also advertising in the stadium, on the billboards by the pitch and banners around the stadium, and TUI will also remain the sponsor of the Hannover 96 Soccer School.