From almost 60,300 to 38,200 employees – a decrease of around 37 percent.
According to information from corporate circles, the tourism business, which collapsed over long stretches in 2020, led to a personnel drain at German market leader TUI. Last November, the entire group had 37 percent fewer employees than a year earlier, the German press agency learned on Friday. Accordingly, the workforce shrank from just under 60,300 people in November 2019 to around 38,200 before the end of 2020.
In addition to the usual seasonal effects, this time there were the effects of the pandemic. In addition, the world's largest travel company is pursuing sharp austerity measures, especially abroad.
When the official figures for the 2019/2020 financial year were presented in December, it had already been shown that the consequences of the coronavirus had a strong impact on employment. At the end of September 2020, Tui still had around 48,300 employees – after 71,500 a year earlier. Last summer, the group initially needed fewer seasonal workers in the holiday areas than in normal years. After the travel restrictions were withdrawn, there were more recruitments in the meantime, the company said. In addition, there are now closings in winter sports regions and southern destinations such as the Canary Islands or Egypt.
In winter, the tourism business is otherwise weaker – before Corona, the difference in staff compared to summer was 15,000, as a spokesman reported. Overall, however, TUI's austerity program should also play a role. CEO Fritz Joussen wants to cut 8,000 jobs, especially outside Germany. So far, he does not consider further cuts necessary because the measures introduced would bring more savings from 2023 than initially calculated.
As it was said from the group environment, the job cuts in Germany should have been around 17 percent by November compared to the previous year. In the hotels at the holiday resorts, however, the workforce was more than halved (minus 57 percent). The airline Tuifly is said to have employed 12 percent and the company Tui Germany 7 percent fewer employees.
