50 years of the TUI brand: From a medium-sized tour operator in Germany to the world market leader in tourism with international hotel companies and cruises

• Transformation to hotel and cruise company successfully completed
• TUI in transition to a digital and platform company

As the Touristik Union International - briefly TUI - was founded in Germany on 1 December 1968 by the four medium-sized tour operators Touropa, Scharnow-Reisen, Hummel-Reise and Dr. Tigges Fahrten, it was not important enough to hit the newspaper headlines. At the time, nobody suspected that one day the largest integrated tourism group in the world would result from this merger. Today, the entire tourism value chain is to be found under the umbrella of the TUI Group with international tour operator brands, six airlines with around 150 medium- and long-haul aircraft, its own cruise ships, destination agencies and around 380 of their own hotels.

'Today, the TUI Smile is a visible sign of service, innovation, quality and safety in virtually all of the Group's business areas,' said Erik Friemuth, TUI Group's Chief Marketing Officer. 'With our globally uniform brand image, we create trust and orientation for our guests'.

While TUI previously was essentially a tour operator, ever since the corporate restructuring started in 2014, the company has, above all, become a developer, investor and operator of hotel and cruise companies. Today, more than 60 percent of the Group's operating result comes from the hotel companies and the cruises operated by the Group subsidiaries Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, TUI Cruises and Marella Cruises. TUI has successfully completed the transformation from a classic tour operator to today's hotel and cruise group, and has taken the next step towards becoming a digital and platform company. Investments in modern IT, unified global customer systems, the Blockchain, investments in the Düsseldorf-based IT company Peakwork and the purchase of the Italian technology start-up Musement point the way for the future. Today, TUI is present in more than 100 destinations and with more than 20 million customers, the leading international tourism group.