TUI Travel PLC changes to Mainstream Sector structure

Following the promotion last year of Johan Lundgren to the position of Deputy Chief Executive of TUI Travel PLC with overall responsibility for its Mainstream Sector, a review of the Sector has been conducted. Having concluded the review, the Group is today announcing a number of changes to the Sector structure and its senior management team which will accelerate its move to modern mainstream and being online driven.

The regional structure of the Sector - Northern, Central Europe and Western Europe - is to be disbanded and a Mainstream Sector Board will be formed. Source market Managing Directors will be directly responsible and accountable for their businesses performance. Reflecting the importance of the Group's two largest source markets, UK & Ireland and Germany, their Managing Directors will be promoted to the Group Management Board.

Volker Böttcher, currently Managing Director, Central Europe, will now focus on the German Specialist Businesses as well as the source markets of Austria, Poland and Switzerland. Volker will sit on the Mainstream Sector Board and will remain on TUI Travel’s Group Management Board and the PLC Board. In addition, he will become a member of the TUI Deutschland Supervisory Board.  Christian Clemens, currently Managing Director TUI Nordic, will take over as Managing Director TUI Deutschland in July. The principal businesses which Christian will be responsible for are TUI Deutschland which includes the brands of TUI and 1-2-Fly amongst others, TUIfly and all distribution channels.  With 23 years in the leisure travel industry, he has been a key member of the Group's Nordic management team, with initial responsibility for Fritidsresor and latterly, when Johan Lundgren moved to the UK, taking overall responsibility for all the Nordic businesses and has been instrumental in implementing a very successful modern mainstream model in the Nordic region.

The Group is pleased to announce that Henrik Norlin will replace Christian Clemens as Managing Director TUI Nordic. Henrik has been with the business for 13 years, most recently in the position of Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director TUI Nordic.

Bart Brackx, Managing Director Western Europe, last year indicated that he would like to have more time to pursue personal and family interests. As a result of this he will focus on TUI Belgium until the end of the current financial year.  The Group is delighted that Bart will continue to be involved with the Company as a consultant and also take up the position of Chairman of Honour of TUI Travel in Belgium.  Retaining Bart’s experience and expertise in an advisory capacity will be enormously beneficial to the Group.  Elie Bruyninckx, currently Chief Executive Officer for Belgium will take on full responsibility for Belgium, Italy and Spain from October.

As previously stated, both David Burling, Managing Director of TUI UK & Ireland and Christian Clemens, Managing Director, TUI Deutschland will join the Group Management Board.

The changes as outlined above will come into effect between now and 1 October 2012. The Sector will continue to report financially within the current regional structure until the year ending 30 September 2012.

Commenting, Peter Long, Chief Executive, TUI Travel said, "Our current Mainstream Sector structure has served us very well since the creation of TUI Travel in 2007 and the Board and I are extremely grateful to both Volker and Bart for their enormous contribution to our continuing success. Both the Group and I personally, value their counsel, their experience and their loyalty and Johan and I are pleased that they will remain with the Group. Looking forward, I believe that the changes announced today will enable Johan and his senior management team to deliver on our ambition for our Mainstream businesses to be the most efficient and profitable in the world whilst providing customers with unique holiday experiences. Johan has my full support as well as that of the Board in putting these changes into effect."

Johan Lundgren, Deputy Chief Executive and MD Mainstream Sector, TUI Travel said, "I know that these changes will give us the opportunity to build on our current success and accelerate our strategy of differentiated product, controlled distribution and reducing costs.  It will also allow us to fully leverage both the strength of knowledge across the Sector and the scale of the Group.  I would like to add my thanks to those of Peter and the Board for the enormous contribution Volker and Bart have made in developing and delivering on our strategy to date and look forward to continuing to work with them in their new roles."