Spanish holiday costs may rise by 10pc, warns Thomas Cook

SPANISH holidays will be more expensive next year, Thomas Cook has warned.

Increased demand because of renewed safety fears at other destinations had driven prices higher, the travel operator said.

The company expects prices to rise by another 5pc to 10pc – having previously anticipated a smaller increase.

Peter Fankhauser, chief executive, said: ‘We don’t have enough beds for all the demand.’

he added that Spanish hoteliers were ‘taking a bit of an advantage’ of the increased demand, but were also investing their higher profits to improve their facilities.

Despite rising costs in Spain, the travel giant said it had seen a rise in customers returning to Egypt and Turkey after a spate of terrorist attacks had kept tourists at bay.

Thomas Cook restarted selling holidays to Tunisia last month following the murder of 38 people in Sousse in 2015. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office previously advised holidaymakers to avoid the region.

Fankhauser said the firm has tried to inform customers ‘as best we can’ about the potential risks and let them make up their own minds about whether they wanted to go.

Thomas Cook revealed that UK bookings have risen 8pc over the summer – despite a highly competitive market in the country as customers flocked to Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

Total summer 2017 bookings were 11pc higher across the group. Its winter programme is 37pc sold, with bookings 5pc higher across the UK and prices up 3pc.

The company added that strong demand in the UK and northern Europe was helping drive a solid start to summer 2018.

Thomas Cook also announced a strategic partnership, with Swissbased hotel property development company LMEY Investments, which has seen the group buy a 42pc stake in German tour operator aldiana from LMEY.

aldiana operates eight club resorts in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia and austria. Thomas Cook also struck a deal with travel website Expedia earlier this month to bolster its city break business. Under the agreement, Expedia will act as the preferred hotel provider for Thomas Cook’s complementary city and domestic holiday arm – giving customers access to its 60,000 hotels which can be booked on their own or as part of a package holiday.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Thomas Cook revealed that the company’s chief financial officer, Michael healy, has decided to retire.

healy, who has been at the firm for five years, will be replaced by Bill Scott, currently director of financial reporting, at the beginning of the year.