The tour operator Tui Austria has found that summer holidays are being booked much earlier this year than in previous seasons. There is confidence that good results can be achieved this year too. All-inclusive package holidays continue to be trendy.

While the winter season is in full swing, the peak booking phase for the 2024 travel summer is already underway. “We are in the middle of the most popular booking period. At the end of December and beginning of January we had a significant increase in bookings. The early bird trend is back, because the number of early bookers is 25 percent higher than before summer,” explains Gottfried Math, Managing Director of Tui Austria.

The tour operator says it has increased capacity for the summer of 2024. Turkish Antalya is said to be particularly popular at the moment. Crete and Mallorca are also said to be frequently booked by Austrians. There are five Greek islands in the top 10. Math says: “Mallorca is recording strong growth and is fighting for second place with Crete. Antalya is currently at the forefront of bookings and we expect higher demand than ever this summer. We want to bring 100.000 guests to Turkey for the first time.” Flights to Karpathos will also be available from Innsbruck in summer 2024.

Holiday flight program significantly expanded

Tui Austria's summer flight schedule includes around 300 weekly departures. The first departures from the summer flight program go to Greece and take off to Crete on March 23, 2024 and to Rhodes on March 24. From Vienna, Tui guests can choose from up to 200 weekly departures to ten holiday countries. “We have increased our flight capacity for next summer by 20 percent,” says Gottfried Math. The leader with the most flight connections is Antalya, followed by Crete, Rhodes, Kos and Palma de Mallorca. The Salzburg – Monastir route will also be added in summer 2024.

The run for all-inclusive offers is still great. “People value the budget security of all-inclusive bookings, where all additional costs in the hotel are already included in the price,” says Gottfried Math. More than every second booking includes an all-inclusive package. The three best-booked hotels by Austrian Tui guests in summer 2024 are the Tui Magic Life Clubs in the Antalya area: Tui Magic Life Belek, Jacaranda and Masmavi, all three on an all-inclusive basis.

When it comes to long-distance travel, the USA maintains its first place in the ranking. The Maldives and Thailand continue to be in high demand in the summer and secure second to third places. There is also good growth in city trips and New York is clearly at the top, ahead of Hamburg, London, Rome and Barcelona. Tui starts the summer here with over 16.000 city hotels in Europe as well as thousands of events and experiences from the Tui experiences program. City packages including flights are particularly in demand.

Tui ranking summer 2024:

Top 10 medium-haul travel destinations

1. Greece
2. Turkey
3. Spain
4. Egypt
5. Italy
6. Croatia
7. Cyprus
8. Portugal
9. Tunisia
10. Bulgaria

Top 3 travel destinations far away

1. USA
2. Maldives
3. Thailand

Top 5 travel destinations

1. Antalya
2. Crete
3. Mallorca
4. Rhodes
5. Hurghada

Top 5 city destinations

1. New York
2. Hamburg
3. London
4. Rome
5. Barcelona