Travel company TUI said it will shut 166 stores in the UK and Ireland in response to the downturn in travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic, in a move which will lead to more losses in the battered sector.
Covid-19 has wiped out holidays abroad for Europeans for months. Now the threat of a second wave of infections and new restrictions on travel during the usually lucrative summer season are causing more pain in a sector where balance sheets are already strained.
The company said the closure of the 166 stores in the UK and Ireland would still leave it with 350 stores in those geographies, but made sense when 70% of TUI's UK bookings were made online.