Tui says it expects Covid vaccine will restart summer travel

Company says many customers are booking flights and holidays much later this year

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Tui said it expected a return to foreign holidays this summer, thanks to the UK’s vaccination programme and rapid tests in other countries.

The world’s biggest travel operator said it had received 2.8m bookings for summer breaks, just more than half of 2019 levels, as customers splashed out on more expensive holidays. The German-based company is offering 80% of holidays compared with 2019 and said more than half of bookings were made by UK-based customers, partly because the British booking season starts earlier.