TUI AG (German: Touristik Union International) (ISIN: DE000TUAG000) is a German based company. Until 2001 it was an industrial and transportation company named Preussag AG, which in the mid-1990s decided to reinvent itself as a tourism, shipping, and logistics company. It sold off many of its industrial concerns and purchased several major travel and transportation firms.
Today it is one of the world's largest tourist firms with interests across Europe. It owns travel agencies, hotels, airlines, cruise ships, retail stores, and container ships. Major subsidiaries include TUI AG Airlines, the largest holiday fleet in Europe. Its common brand TUIfly encompasses 7 airlines. TUI AG is also one of the world's largest shipping companies, having its logistics activities bundled within Hapag-Lloyd AG and concentrated on the highly profitable shipping sector.
Some data of TUI:
approx. 3,500 travel agencies
79 tour operator in 18 countries
over 120 aircraft
37 incoming agencies in 31 countries
12 hotel brand in 28 countries with 285 hotels and around 163,000 beds
1968 creation of TUI (Touristik Union International) an association of the medium-sized companies Touropa, Scharnow-Reisen, Hummel Reise and Dr. Tigges
1970 airtours international and TransEuropa integrate to TUI; Creation of ROBINSON Club (with the group Steigenberger)
from 1972 participation to different hotel brands (et al. Iberotel 1972, RIU 1977, Grecotels 1981)
1990 the name of the main tour operator is "TUI Schöne Ferien"
1995 Creation of TUI Nederland and TUI Austria
1996 Creation of TUI Suisse
1998 Acquisition of the group Preussag/Hapag-Lloyd and rename to Hapag Touristik Union (HTU)
2001 TUI Group is now 100% subsidiary of Preussag AG
2002 Rename of Preussag AG to TUI AG
from 2002 reorganisation from a mixed company to tourism company.
2004 The bank WestLB sell their participation (31,4%) from the TUI AG. New shareholders are Spanish investors (Family Riu, Grupo de Empresas Matutes, Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo).
2005 TUI sells subsidiary VTG AG to Compagnie Européenne de Wagons.
2005 The shipping activities are grouped under the Hapag-Lloyd. With the acquisition of CP Ships it becomes the fourth largest worldwide containershipping company.
2006 TUI AG sells business travel subsidiary TQ3 to BCD Holdings N.V.
2007 TUI AG tourism division merges with First Choice Holidays PLC to form TUI Travel PLC