The boss of Tui has said that heatwaves and climate change could alter the way people travel after the tour operator took a €25 million hit on July's wildfires in Rhodes.
Flights were cancelled and tourists evacuated last month amid the crisis that one traveller described as "literally like the end of the world". People were moved to sleep in sports centres and schools as they waited for flights home after the fires made some holiday resorts uninhabitable.
Tui said 8,000 of its customers were evacuated from Rhodes, but added that 80% of guests on the Greek island were unaffected.
The company said the €25m (£21.6m) wildfire bill included the price of cancelling holidays, compensating customers and flying them home. It comes after the group returned to profitability in the key April to June period for the first time since before the Covid pandemic.
READ MORE: Rhodes wildfires see flights cancelled and tourists evacuated
The tour operator reported an underlying pre-tax profit of €169.4m (£146m) for the quarter, almost €197m higher than the same period a year earlier. A 9% increase in passenger numbers to 5.5 million took bookings close to pre-pandemic levels as Tui carried 95% as many passengers as it did in the same quarter in 2019.
Speaking today to the BBC, chief executive Sebastian Ebel said holidaymakers in the future might choose to travel to Greece in November rather than at the height of summer. Destinations such as the Belgian or Polish coast could become more popular.
He added that the company is set to broaden the amount of destinations it offers to mitigate against this, but stressed that the Mediterranean region remains one of the top places for holidaymakers.
In total more than 20,000 people were evacuated during last month's wildfires in Rhodes and other parts of Greece. Rhodes accounted for about 5% of Tui's summer holday offering this year.
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