50 years of TUI in pictures

Touropa – pictured is a special train for holidaymakers at the end of the 1950s – was one of the founding companies of TUI. In 2004, the brand was revived as a dynamic packaging tour operator in a joint venture with Georg Eisenreich but this was unsuccessful. (Archiv)

Paul Lepach (left) was TUI chairman from 1972 to 1990. Under his leadership, the group grew closer together. In 1983, TUI moved into its new head office in Karl-Wiechert-Allee in Hanover. The picture shows Lepach in 1982 at the TUI spring party with Karl Anton Schattmaier, then departmental head for Robinson and later chief of Steigenberger and Thomas Cook Hotels & Resorts, and Robinson managing director Wolfgang Arthur Mankel. Lepach died in 2013 aged 88 on Majorca. (Archiv)

TUI Day in Düsseldorf in 1982. Paul Lepach announces record turnover of DM 2.3 billion for the 1980/81 business year to travel agency partners. (Archiv)

TUI summer party 1992. The tour operator thanked travel agencies with events on the fictional island of ‘TUIlithi’. Some 4,500 agents came to the regional parties. (Archiv)

TUI celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1993 with a giant cake. Another big party with 600 guests took place in Hanover for the 40th anniversary. (Archiv)

In 1994, the tour operator introduced the Holly Awards for the 100 hotels that were best evaluated by customers. (Archiv)

Ground-breaking in August 1995 for the TUI head office extension in Hanover with the company’s board. From right: Marc Pasture, Ralf Corsten, Gerhard Heine, Lower Saxony minister-president Gerhard Schröder, city mayor Herbert Schmalstieg, Karl Born, Helmut Roland, Jürgen Fischer and Rolf Range from construction firm Hochtief. (Archiv)

TUI always maintained close relationships with politicians. Pictured are Ralf Corsten (left), the chairman from 1992 onwards, and supervisory board chairman Hans Georg Willers in the 1990s with minister-president Gerhard Schröder and Hanover’s city mayor Herbert Schmalstieg. (Archiv)

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The powerful WestLB chief Friedel Neuber (left) paved the way for the Preussag industrial group, managed by his former assistant Michael Frenzel, to take over TUI and transform itself into a tourism group. The picture dates from the AGM in 1998, when Preussag took stakes in Hapag-Lloyd and TUI. Frenzel remained at the head of TUI until 2013. (Archiv)

The group played a major role at the Expo World Exposition in Hanover in the year 2000. The picture shows the TUI Expo Scouts. (Archiv)

Presentation of the winter brochures in July 2000: chairman Ralf Corsten and Volker Böttcher, who headed TUI Germany from 2001 until 2013, with press chief Mario Köpers. (Archiv)

In the year 2000, C&N Touristic, formed by the merger of Condor and Neckermann, wanted under the management of Stefan Pichler to take over British market leader Thomson Travel Group. Their CEO Charles Gurassa pokered hard and negotiated in parallel with TUI. At the end, TUI chief Michael Frenzel trumped Pichler and bought Thomson for the proud sum of DM 5.8 billion. Gurassa became a TUI board member. Pichler then acquired Thomas Cook and took its traditional name for the entire group. (Archiv)

In 2002 the smiley was introduced as the logo. Pictured is a transfer bus in the new look of the World of TUI. (Archiv)

Berlin’s city mayor visited the TUI stand at ITB in 2005. Front row: Messe Berlin chief Raimund Hosch, Karl J. Pojer, then head of TUI Hotels & Resorts, Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit. Back row: Klaus Zumpfort (TUI), Klaus Laepple (BTW) and Christian Göke (Messe Berlin). (Archiv)

TUI entered the low-cost flights market with HLX in a yellow taxi look – and lost plenty of money. In 2007, HLX and leisure airline Hapagfly were merged and operate since then as TUIfly. The airline managers Roland Keppler, who has just left TUI Group for a second time, and Christoph Müller, today with Emirates, presented the plans. (Archiv)

The group’s own hotel brands, above all the holding in Spanish firm Riu Hotels & Resorts with about 100 properties worldwide, are a core part of TUI. The picture from 2008 shows Carmen Riu, who runs the Majorcan family company together with her brother Luis and who is also a member of the TUI supervisory board. Riu also owns 3.4% of TUI shares. (Archiv)

In 2007, TUI merged its tourism business, excluding hotels and cruises, with the British tour operator First Choice as TUI Travel PLC, after Thomas Cook had earlier taken over the rival firm My Travel/Airtours. First Choice chief Peter Long (centre), here in 2008 in London with TUI Germany chief Volker Böttcher and Klaus Hildebrandt (fvw), became head of TUI Travel. Today Long is deputy chairman of the supervisory board. (Archiv)

For the 40th anniversary in 2008, TUI Germany released a ‘birthday’ brochure in retro-look. (Archiv)

At the AGM in 2009 in Hanover, the rebel shareholder John Fredriksen wanted to get rid of the supervisory board chairman, in order to bring down the TUI management and focus the group on the Hapag-Lloyd container shipping business. But the Norwegian failed at a dramatic AGM and later sold off his shares again. (Archiv)

Keeping contact with important partners. Chairman Michael Frenzel at the TUI evening at ITB 2010 in the German Historical Museum with Hamed El Chiaty, head of Egyptian hotel and incoming group Travco. (Archiv)

For sales, TUI relies on branches, franchises and cooperation models. Pictured is franchisee Angelika Hummel, from TUI Reisecenter Freiburg, talking with fvw reporter Ira Lanz in 2010. (Archiv)

Foundation of TUI Russia in Moscow in 2010. Pictured left is Russian industrialist Alexey Mordashov, TUI’s largest shareholder with a stake of nearly 25 percent and who is the joint venture partner of TUI Russia & CIS through his private holding. (Archiv)

Since February 2013, Fritz Joussen has been chairman of TUI. Joussen, pictured on a visit to fvw in Hamburg, achieved the reunification with TUI Travel. In the last few years he has improved the group’s profitability substantially, driven ahead with digitalisation and invested in hotels and cruise ships. (Archiv)

Europa 2 christening in 2013 in Hamburg. Under the management of Karl J. Pojer, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is growing with luxury and expedition cruises. (Archiv)

Spectacular christening of Mein Schiff 3 in Hamburg in 2014. Godmother Helene Fischer floated across the port and performed a big concert. CEO Richard Vogel, who built up TUI Cruises, handled over the helm afterwards to Wybcke Meier. (Archiv)

New technology is taking over tourism. Anja Braun (TUI Germany) takes a selfie with robot Pepper in the TUI Flagship Store in Berlin in 2017. (Archiv)

Board member Sebastian Ebel (right) also took over management of TUI Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland) in 2015. In the middle of 2017, he handed over the job to Marek Andryszak, previously head of TUI Poland. Ebel is today responsible for hotels, cruises and destination management on the TUI Group board. (Archiv)