TUI AG, the German company that is the world’s largest tour operator and which has a major footprint in the cruise industry, said that its cruise operations were on the course of stronger second half after a soft start of the financial year.

“Coming into the new calendar year, we have seen itinerary amendments across our three brands, due to various port closures and increasing incidence rates affecting our planned itineraries in the Middle East and in the Caribbean,” the company said in a statement.

“For all three cruises brands, we will likely see a challenging first half as a result with the short- term booking profile expected to continue into the Summer. However H2 2022 and 2023 bookings are all currently at higher rates compared to booking positions as of Q1 2019,” TUI AG said.

The company owns 50% of TUI Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten in Germany and is the sole owner of Marella Cruises in the UK.

In the three months to 31 December 2021 that was the first quarter of the company’s present financial year, revenues from cruise operations rose to €34.2 million from a mere €0.6 million in the corresponding period year earlier. EBITA remained deeply negative, but improved to minus €31.7 million from €98.4 million, the company said..