Thousands of TUI holidays cancelled as coronavirus pandemic spreads

One of Europe’s biggest holiday companies, TUI, has cancelled thousands of holidays because of the coronavirus pandemic.

People travelling to Spain, Jamaica, Malta, Italy and Tunisia are being told that their holidays have been axed.

TUI is also issuing separate advice to people travelling to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam about the visas they will need.

The Manchester Evening News reported that for those people travelling to Florida, they are urged to get in touch as Disney and Universal has closed its theme parks there.

TUI said in a statement issued on Saturday: “Our holiday program is experiencing some disruption due to local authority restrictions and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice.

“We are proactively contacting all customers whose holidays are affected to discuss their options, including an amendment or full refund.”

It comes as Jet2 turned back flights to the UK mid-air on Saturday morning and cancelled all its holidays to Spain. The full statement by TUI is given below.

We are aware that the Jamaican authorities have taken the decision not to permit entry to anyone travelling from the UK to Jamaica from 14th March 2020 for 14 days.

We will proactively contact all customers due to travel to Jamaica between 14th March and 28th March, including all cruise bookings to offer alternative holiday options or offer a full-refund.

Following local measures put in place by the Spanish Authorities, including closing some hotel facilities and the local bars, restaurants and beaches we have made the difficult decision to cancel holidays due to travel between 14 and 16 March.  

Although there is currently no advice from the UK government against travelling to Spain it would not be the holiday experience we would want for our customers.

We will proactively contact all customers due to travel to Alicante between 14 March and 16 March to offer alternative holiday options or offer a full-refund.

Any customers due to travel between 17 March and 23 March will be contacted about their holiday on Monday 16 March.

Due to restrictions introduced by the local authorities, we’re sorry to advise that all holidays to Cyprus departing up to and including 24 March have unfortunately had to be cancelled.

If you are due to travel in the next two days, you will receive a full refund.

We are proactively contacting affected customers departing between 16 and 24 March to find a suitable alternative holiday.

Customers who manage to rebook onto an alternative holiday will receive £50 per adult and £25 per child discount off their new holiday cost.

If it is absolutely not possible to find a suitable alternative, customers will receive a full refund.

All holidays on or after 25 March are currently operating as planned, therefore normal terms and conditions for amendments and cancellations apply.

Should the restriction remain in place we will proactively contact affected customers. Due to restrictions introduced by the local authorities, we’re sorry to advise that all holidays to Malta and Tunisia departing up to and including 22 March have unfortunately had to be cancelled.

If you are due to travel in the next two days, you will receive a full refund.

We are proactively contacting affected customers departing between 16 and 24 March to find a suitable alternative holiday.

Customers who manage to rebook onto an alternative holiday will receive £50 per adult and £25 per child discount off their new holiday cost.

If it is absolutely not possible to find a suitable alternative, customers will receive a full refund.

All holidays on or after 22 March are currently operating as planned, therefore normal terms and conditions for amendments and cancellations apply.

Should the restriction remain in place we will proactively contact affected customers.

We’re aware that the FCO has now changed its travel advice for Italy to all but essential travel and the Italian government has implemented new internal measures to minimise the spread of Coronavirus which will run up to and including 3rd April.

If you are due to travel between now and 3rd April to Italy a member of our customer services team will contact you directly to discuss your options including an amendment or full refund.

Customers who rebook will receive a refund of £50 per adult, and £25 per child. Holidays from 4th April onwards are due to operate as planned.

We are aware that Universal Orlando Resort and Walt Disney World Resort have announced they will be closing between 15 and 31 March.

Any customers due to travel to Florida in those dates who wish to discuss their options should call our customer contact centre. To discuss your booking to Florida, please call us on 0800 009 3836 or 0203 636 1997: 9am - 7pm (Monday to Friday), 9am – 6pm (Saturday) and 10am-5pm (Sunday).

The local authorities in Sri Lanka have implemented restrictions meaning that passengers will no longer be able to apply for a visa on arrival into the country.

Therefore, all customers due to travel on a TUI holiday, TUI Tour or Multi-centre holiday to Sri Lanka must secure their visa prior to travel.

The local authorities in Thailand have implemented restrictions meaning all customers due to travel on a TUI holiday to Thailand, whether with TUI Airways or a third party airline, will be required to download an AOT Airports app onto their mobile phones and complete the required information such as full name, passport ID, mobile phone number and address.

This information will be stored for 14 days and used if state agencies are required to make contact with individuals either during their holiday or afterwards.

We are contacting customers who are due to travel to Vietnam from 17th March onwards as they will now need to apply for a visa from the Vietnamese Embassy.