Latest news with #TUIGroup
Metro
3 days ago
- Metro
Passengers pin down man who tries to open plane door mid-flight
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A passenger was held back from trying to open plane doors mid-flight. Footage shows flight attendants and passengers on the London Gatwick flight from the Dominican Republic restraining the man on June 29. Oore Fabunmi, 25, said she was sat behind the man when he suddenly stood up and ran toward the front of the aircraft. Screams erupted from throughout the cabin as he tried to pry open the doors. Passengers stepped in to pin the man down before TUI airline staff stepped in to detain him. He remained sat with staff for the rest of the flight and was escorted off the plane by police officers upon landing in London. Oore, a hearings officer from south London, said: 'It was pretty scary at first. 'I remember just seeing him leave the row in front of me and run forward. 'Next thing I heard was just screams coming from the front. 'My first thought was that we were being hijacked and we might die – like in the movies.' Oore said she interacted with the man at the beginning of the flight as she helped him find the correct seat. Oore said: 'I had chatted to him earlier in the journey. I got onto the plane with some friends I'd made on the holiday and he was actually sitting in one of their seats. 'They asked him to move and he seemed confused about his ticket so I helped him find his seat. 'He seemed alright after that until he started getting agitated halfway through the flight.' But four hours into the eight hour flight, Oore said the man began to grow restless. She said: 'He stood up on his seat, which I obviously thought was strange and then he just ran to the doors.' Passengers intervened and tried to pin the man down before airline staff stepped in to detain him. Oore said: 'All of it was quite strange. I think he clearly needed some help. More Trending 'He did not seem mentally well. I remember him muttering something about his wife being on a cruise, both at his seat and later by the door. 'But outside of that, I have no idea why he did what he did.' The man remained sat for the rest of the journey and passengers were asked to remain seated after landing while police came aboard to escort him off. The TUI Group have been contacted for comment. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: I tried Heathrow's £3,177 VIP terminal — how the other half fly MORE: Emirates business class review: I 'turned left' — now I'm ruined for life MORE: Plane suddenly drops 500 feet to 'avoid mid-air collision' with British jet fighter
Daily Maverick
16-07-2025
- Daily Maverick
From classrooms to climate action: SA's new eco champions lead the way
Across South Africa, a growing movement of student-led environmental action is reshaping schools and communities. Supported by the TUI Care Foundation and Masifunde, young 'Eco Champions' are tackling climate change with creativity, passion, and purpose — turning rubbish into playgrounds, launching recycled materials fashion shows, and proving that youth have the power to lead real change. A quiet revolution is taking root across South Africa's schools. Young people, often overlooked in conversations about climate and community, are becoming passionate eco champions — leading environmental campaigns, organising clean-ups, and inspiring their peers to protect the planet. Brigitta Horvath, programmes manager at the TUI Care Foundation, explains the foundation's vision. Established by the TUI Group as a charitable initiative, the foundation drives sustainable development in tourist destinations worldwide. 'Tourism has enormous potential to positively impact not only the natural environment, but also the livelihoods of local communities,' said Horvath. A key strategic focus is education, particularly empowering disadvantaged youth through the TUI Junior Academy and related programmes. The Junior Academy offers vocational education and environmental training, designed to equip young people with the skills to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. 'In South Africa, climate change is a particularly pressing issue. So investing in education that raises awareness and builds resilience to climate impacts is essential,' she said. Launched in early 2023, the two-year project partners with local civil society organisations, including Masifunde, to reach 200 schools across all nine provinces. About 100 teachers have been trained to support the programme, alongside district officials from the Department of Education who receive hybrid (online and in-person) training. At the heart of the programme are the Eco Champions: motivated students eager to learn about and protect their environment. 'Eco Champions are students who disseminate their knowledge not only within schools, but also in their communities and households. These young leaders catalyse local environmental campaigns and community action projects tailored to the unique challenges of their settings,' said Horvath. From Nelson Mandela Bay to SA Jonas Schumacher, the managing director of Masifunde, shared the organisation's journey from a local initiative in Nelson Mandela Bay to a nationwide effort. 'For the past 20 years, Masifunde has been training change makers in townships and beyond. We work holistically with primary and high schools to nurture active citizenship,' he said. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Masifunde expanded its reach to 50 schools across Nelson Mandela Bay. Their work tackled environmental education alongside social issues like school safety, gender-based violence prevention, and anti-bullying, deeply relevant themes for young people in difficult circumstances. The partnership between Masifunde and TUI Care Foundation blossomed through shared vision and timing. TUI sought to train Eco Champions across South Africa using Masifunde's proven methodologies. Together, they have empowered 40 NGOs, which work directly in hundreds of schools to create student leaders driving tangible environmental projects — from beach clean-ups and community gardens to awareness campaigns and tree planting. 'The goal is to raise awareness about protecting our environment. But more importantly, to help young people see they have agency, that their actions, no matter how small, can make a difference,' said Schumacher. 'We're training Change Makers, children and youth who learn to be active citizens in their communities. Our approach is holistic, covering not just environmental issues, but also school safety, bullying, and gender-based violence.' Choosing the right schools One of the defining strengths of the Masifunde and TUI Junior Academy partnership is its deliberate focus on the schools that need it most, often in communities under strain from economic and social hardship. 'At the heart of the programme is a commitment to reaching the underserved. The national Department of Education is a critical partner here. They identify schools in the most challenging rural, township and peri-urban districts, places where NGOs are scarce, or sometimes nonexistent,' said Schumacher. In regions like these, the need for environmental education intersected with broader systemic gaps, limited resources, strained infrastructure and vulnerable social conditions. Masifunde undertook a rigorous selection and capacity-building process that goes beyond standard training, said Schumacher. Once onboarded, NGO representatives often travel to Nelson Mandela Bay to participate in intensive, hands-on workshops. There, they master the Change Maker methodology, learning not only how to activate young people, but how to embed those lessons into schools and communities through ongoing engagement. Eco Champions Schumacher emphasised that the programme strategically brought school staff and district officials into the fold. 'Teachers, school leadership, and education officials are integral. We want our Eco Champions to have allies inside the system, not just from outside NGOs. That internal buy-in is crucial,' he said. Each participating school selects one or more teachers to act as anchors for the initiative. These educators become vital conduits between the Change Maker programme and the school community, fostering peer learning and sustaining momentum beyond isolated workshops. One of the most powerful moments Schumacher recounts is seeing a Grade 9 learner step up to address their school assembly on climate change. 'It's a complete paradigm shift when a young student stands where a teacher typically commands attention and passionately speaks on environmental issues. That's the ripple effect we strive for,' he said. Linda Zali, the head of training and replication at Masifunde, highlighted the use of peer-to-peer learning and youth-friendly materials to engage Grade 9 learners, who nominate Eco Champions. 'We start with activation workshops in the schools where all Grade 9 learners are brought together and activated as Change Makers. We use youth-friendly materials, like magazines designed specifically on the topic of climate change, working closely with experts to make a complex subject more relevant and interesting for young people,' she said. What follows is a peer-led model that helps build ownership and confidence among learners. 'At each workshop, every class nominates an Eco Champion. These Eco Champions then receive further virtual training from us on how to be Change Makers and about the climate change topic,' said Zali. Rather than simply handing down instructions, the programme encourages these young leaders to develop their own campaigns. 'We don't develop campaigns and give them to learners to just implement. The learners are actively involved in the process of coming up with these campaigns. So already there's a sense of ownership from the start,' she said. This approach also recognises the power of peer-to-peer communication. 'The Eco Champions then roll out the campaigns, not just through formal lessons but at school assemblies, during break times, or through activities like role plays and presentations. Because the message is coming from their peers, it often has a deeper impact,' she said. Zali also emphasised the importance of sustainability. They trained at least one teacher per school, aiming for full buy-in from the school management so that these initiatives didn't happen in isolation. Teachers and district officials were also trained to ensure ongoing support within the educational system. Seed funding from the TUI Care Foundation helps launch school gardens or community action projects, with follow-up funding for the most successful efforts. 'Some projects are one-off clean-ups, but others have the potential to grow into established interventions driven by the youth themselves — it's that organic development we love to see,' said Zali. This empowerment focuses on recognising each child's unique 'superpower' — whether it's storytelling, organising clubs or sports, and channelling those talents for positive community impact. However, the rollout across the vast geography of South Africa is not without its hurdles. Zali highlighted difficulties in quality control and maintaining consistency when so many partners were involved. High staff turnover at grassroots NGOs threatened knowledge retention, but they mitigated this through ongoing virtual training and multiple coordinators. Accessing schools was also a challenge due to timing constraints during holidays, and occasionally some school leaders deprioritised environmental issues over immediate social concerns like bullying. The team addressed this scepticism by linking climate change impacts to recent floods and weather extremes affecting communities right now. Creativity and determination Among the many initiatives sparked by the Eco Champions network, some truly stand out not just for their impact but for the sheer creativity and determination behind them, testaments to how empowering youth leads to unforeseen, inspired solutions. One particularly striking project unfolded right on Masifunde's doorstep in Nelson Mandela Bay. Schumacher recounts the story with pride. 'Our Change Makers noticed an illegal dump site directly in front of a primary school, a place that should be safe for children but was instead littered with rubbish and health hazards,' he said. But rather than seeing only a problem, these young leaders saw an opportunity. 'They didn't just want to clean up the trash one time. They envisioned something far greater: transforming the polluted area into a bike park and a safe playground, a green and welcoming space where children could gather and play freely,' he said. With plans in hand, the Eco Champions approached the local municipality. The idea resonated, and together they began turning a hazardous blight into an asset for the community. Soon, what was once an eyesore filled with debris will become a place buzzing with laughter, activity, and hope. Zali recalled another inventive wave of youthful energy that took a different form. A Gauteng-based school harnessed the power of culture and fun to raise environmental awareness by organising a fashion show unlike any other. What made it remarkable was the clothing. Instead of the latest designer wear, students crafted outfits entirely from recycled materials. Plastic bags, old newspapers, discarded fabrics, all were transformed into creative garments that dazzled peers and teachers alike. 'The fashion show merged a beloved cultural passion with a vital message. It showed students and the community that protecting the environment could be exciting, relatable, and innovative,' said Zali. This intersection of art and activism ignited conversation around the 'five Rs' of environmental stewardship: reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse and rethink. Zali noted that it shifted the idea of sustainability from an abstract concern to a colorful, youthful celebration of creativity and responsibility. Lasting change For Schumacher, Zali and Horvath, youth-led environmental action is not just about projects, it's a movement for climate justice and future leadership. 'It's their future, and while they're not decision-makers yet, they will live with the consequences. Empowering them now shapes conscious, active leaders,' said Schumacher. Horvath echoed this conviction. 'Climate change impacts everyone, and yes, it can be frightening, but education is about inspiring action, not fear,' she said. Looking ahead, the partnership between Masifunde and the TUI Care Foundation aims to culminate in a powerful gathering of young environmental leaders from across South Africa. Scheduled for October, the national learner summit will bring together Eco Champions from all nine provinces for a week of inspiration, learning, and connection. Zali described the summit as much more than just a conference. 'It's an opportunity to galvanise the youth movement we have been nurturing for years. We want these young people not only to celebrate their achievements but to leave the summit empowered with new knowledge, skills, and networks that will fuel ongoing action,' she said. The goal is clear: to spark lasting behavioural change in schools and communities alike, transforming awareness into tangible environmental advocacy. 'We want the learners to become advocates who challenge local leadership — whether in school management, municipalities, or beyond. Their voice should ripple through their communities and inspire others to join the movement,' said Zali. Beyond the summit's immediate impact, Zali emphasised the importance of longevity. 'We want this to be more than a moment in time. The goal is that these youth leaders carry the momentum forward — continuing to initiate projects, mentor new eco warriors, and embed a culture of sustainability,' she said. DM
Travel Daily News
25-06-2025
- Business
- Travel Daily News
TUI Group accelerates hotel expansion across Africa
TUI Blue and TUI Suneo extend their portfolio in North Africa; New openings planned in The Gambia and Côte d'Ivoire. CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA – TUI Group continues to expand its hotel business worldwide and pursues ambitious plans to support the African hospitality industry. With its 12 leisure hotel brands, the group offers unique experiences for holidaymakers and invites them to enjoy the respective region with its culinary delights, natural beauty and cultural heritage. A few weeks ago, the brands TUI Blue and TUI Suneo expanded their portfolio in Africa. In Egypt, TUI Blue Samaya with 143 rooms and an aqua park has been added to the premium brand's portfolio. The hotel is located in the growing destination of Marsa Alam. For holidaymakers looking for value for money, TUI Suneo Palm Beach Skanes in Tunisia has also opened its doors. With 294 rooms and a large garden area, the hotel is offering an attractive all-inclusive package with a wide range of sports and entertainment options. 'Together with our long-standing JV partners, we have more than 20 hotels in our pipeline that will open in Africa in the coming months and years', says Artur Gerber, Managing Director TUI Hotels & Resorts, at the Future Hospitality Summit Africa. 'We already have a strong presence in North Africa, the Cape Verde Islands and Zanzibar, but we are convinced that other destinations can also benefit from our strong leisure hotel brands.' For example, the lifestyle brand TUI Blue is planning its first hotel in The Gambia, which will open at the end of this year. The resort features 140 rooms and a unique location along Kotu Beach. 'With our expertise, along with management and franchise agreements, we are also attracting hotel partners in entirely new destinations. One example is Côte d'Ivoire, where the construction of a new TUI Blue hotel has just started and is scheduled to open in 2027', adds Wesam Okasha, Head of Global Development TUI Blue. Last year, company launched a new brand targeting the upscale market and selected Tanzania as its inaugural destination. The Mora Zanzibar has just celebrated its first anniversary, offering laid-back, contemporary luxury with highly personalized and flexible service. 'Our guest reviews show that The Mora is resonating strongly with this new audience and delivering an exceptional experience. We are very proud of this achievement and look forward to introducing more carefully selected The Mora hotels across Africa,' says Artur Gerber. TUI Hotels & Resorts' current portfolio in Africa comprises a total of 97 hotels with over 30,000 rooms across eight countries.
Zawya
19-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
TUI Hotels & Resorts contributes to growth in Africa with strong leisure hotel brands
TUI Blue and TUI Suneo extend their portfolio in North Africa New openings planned in The Gambia and Côte d'Ivoire New luxury brand The Mora celebrates its first anniversary TUI Group ( continues to expand its hotel business worldwide and pursues ambitious plans to support the African hospitality industry. With its 12 leisure hotel brands, TUI offers unique experiences for holidaymakers and invites them to enjoy the respective region with its culinary delights, natural beauty and cultural heritage. A few weeks ago, the brands TUI Blue and TUI Suneo expanded their portfolio in Africa. In Egypt, TUI Blue Samaya with 143 rooms and an aqua park has been added to the premium brand's portfolio. The hotel is located in the growing destination of Marsa Alam. For holidaymakers looking for value for money, TUI Suneo Palm Beach Skanes in Tunisia has also opened its doors. With 294 rooms and a large garden area, the hotel is offering an attractive all-inclusive package with a wide range of sports and entertainment options. 'Together with our long-standing JV partners, we have more than 20 hotels in our pipeline that will open in Africa in the coming months and years', says Artur Gerber, Managing Director TUI Hotels&Resorts, at the Future Hospitality Summit Africa. 'We already have a strong presence in North Africa, the Cape Verde Islands and Zanzibar, but we are convinced that other destinations can also benefit from our strong leisure hotel brands.' For example, the lifestyle brand TUI Blue is planning its first hotel in The Gambia, which will open at the end of this year. The resort features 140 rooms and a unique location along Kotu Beach. 'With our expertise, along with management and franchise agreements, we are also attracting hotel partners in entirely new destinations. One example is Côte d'Ivoire, where the construction of a new TUI Blue hotel has just started and is scheduled to open in 2027', adds Wesam Okasha, Head of Global Development TUI Blue. Last year, TUI launched a new brand targeting the upscale market and selected Tanzania as its inaugural destination. The Mora Zanzibar has just celebrated its first anniversary, offering laid-back, contemporary luxury with highly personalized and flexible service. 'Our guest reviews show that The Mora is resonating strongly with this new audience and delivering an exceptional experience. We are very proud of this achievement and look forward to introducing more carefully selected The Mora hotels across Africa,' says Artur Gerber. TUI Hotels&Resorts' current portfolio in Africa comprises a total of 97 hotels with over 30,000 rooms across eight countries. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of TUI Blue Hotels. TUI Group - Group Corporate&External Affairs: Natascha Kreye Corporate Communications Phone: +49 (0) 511 566 6029 About TUI Group: The TUI Group is one of the world's leading tourism groups and operates worldwide. The Group is headquartered in Germany. TUI shares are listed in the MDAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and in the regulated market of the Lower Saxony Stock Exchange in Hanover. TUI Group offers its over 20 million customers integrated services from a single source and forms the entire tourism value chain under one roof. The Group owns over 400 hotels and resorts with premium brands such as RIU, TUI Blue and Robinson and 18 cruise ships, ranging from the MS Europa and MS Europa 2 in the luxury class and expedition ships in the HANSEATIC class to the Mein Schiff fleet of TUI Cruises and cruise ships operated by Marella Cruises in the UK. The Group also includes Europe's leading tour operator brands and online marketing platforms, for example for hotel-only or flight-only offers, five airlines with 125 modern medium- and long-haul aircraft and around 1,200 travel agencies. In addition to expanding its core business with hotels and cruises via successful joint ventures and activities in vacation destinations, TUI is increasingly focusing on the expansion of digital platforms. The Group is transforming itself into a global tourism platform company. Global responsibility for sustainable economic, environmental and social action is at the heart of our corporate culture. With projects in 25 countries, the TUI Care Foundation initiated by TUI focuses on the positive effects of tourism, on education and training and on strengthening environmental and social standards. In this way, it supports the development of vacation destinations. The globally active TUI Care Foundation initiates projects that create new opportunities for the next generation.
Forbes
10-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The HR Transformation Empowering This Company's 41,000 Employees
Leading tourism company TUI Group turned to WalkMe to help standardize and automate its HR processes for an improved employee experience and increased efficiency. By Gillian Hixson, SAP News The TUI Group is a leading global tourism company headquartered in Germany, offering integrated travel services like hotels, cruise ships, and travel agencies to its 20 million customers. At SAP Sapphire in Orlando, Laura Dean, digital adoption and training lead at TUI, shared the company's success in streamlining its HR processes in SAP SuccessFactors solutions with WalkMe. TUI implemented SAP SuccessFactors eight years ago, and now the company's over 41,000 employees use various SAP SuccessFactors solutions for performance management, talent management, learning, HR data management, and more. 'With so many capabilities and so many employees, as you can imagine, it's a steep learning curve for our employees,' Dean said. This is where TUI turned to WalkMe to help standardize and automate its HR processes for an improved employee experience and increased efficiency. TUI faced three main challenges when it came to HR processes, Dean explained: employees struggled to learn new systems, legacy training approaches were expensive and difficult to maintain, and time-consuming HR tasks were impacting overall business operations. 'We needed something that was going to bring us into the future but that could support the organization as well,' Dean said. The solution also needed to be available 24/7 and in multiple languages to effectively support TUI's global employee base, which includes flight attendants, pilots, travel agents, and other seasonal roles. TUI implemented WalkMe to help employees navigate the company's HR processes more easily and efficiently as well as aid HR staff members. With WalkMe analytics, TUI can identify where users have challenges in existing processes and then build WalkMe solutions to create personalized and automated experiences to help mitigate those challenges. For employees, this can mean the software feels easier to use; for HR staff and the business, it can lead to fewer employee and manager errors and faster time-to-value for SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Dean described how WalkMe automation helped simplify TUI's onboarding processes for new employees by automatically assigning e-mail addresses in the SAP SuccessFactors system during the hiring process to reduce login issues on an employee's first day. This not only improved the new hire experience, it also saved HR teams time and proactively addressed any errors. TUI also simplified the time-off request process for HR staff and employees. 'We set up a process whereby if somebody is booking sick leave and they have annual leave at the same time, WalkMe will intercept them. It will say 'You've actually got holiday at the same time so we need you to cancel that holiday and put it through as sick time,'' Dean said. 'What that means then for us is that we've got less questions going to HR, less tickets being raised, and more people following the actual process for their region.' WalkMe analytics can offer visibility into what software is being used and how. With this insight, companies can identify opportunities for improved efficiency and deploy in-app guidance and automations to address specific points in processes. 'One of the real benefits of WalkMe is how the data that is available helps us make decisions around how we support employees and how we build digital adoption solutions for our employees,' Dean said. 'We've focused a lot on the data that's within the annual employee process and how our users are actually using their system currently.' Analyzing aggregated annual employee form process data collected by WalkMe over 90 days, Dean saw that HR completed the process with no errors 70% of the time, completed the process with some errors 5% of the time, and did not complete the process 23% of the time. Even more, Dean could see where the errors were occurring and where users who didn't complete the form were getting stuck. Based on this data, Dean used WalkMe to highlight the most-missed fields on the form, reminding users to complete them before moving on. 'If 5% of the time they don't know that information, I need to do something when they get here to say, 'Please make sure you have this information before you carry on.' So, I'm telling them in advance they need to have that, which I can do with WalkMe,' she said. When asked how easy the analytics dashboards are to build, Dean explained that WalkMe gathers all the forms automatically so there's no need to build anything additional. With WalkMe flow analytics, you set up the process step-by-step and then the report collects data over time. 'It's super quick and easy. With UI intelligence you get an out-of-the-box set of insights that shows usage of forms in the system. It shows me where people stop and start processing and points of friction,' she said. TUI's brand purpose to 'create the moments that make life richer' not only applies to its customers, but extends to its employee base as well. With the help of WalkMe and SAP SuccessFactors solutions, TUI has certainly succeeded in enriching and empowering HR and end users. 'What we've been able to see is 80% higher employee self-efficiency,' Dean said. 'So the good news is they don't need to contact their local support team because actually what they can do is go into our WalkMe menu and search for any of the content, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across six different languages.' TUI has also experienced 70% less time spent on training, a 40% increase in task completion, and 50% fewer support calls with the help of WalkMe. For Dean herself, WalkMe has enhanced her role as a trainer: 'It actually supports me to do that change management piece within my organization. It supports me to educate and enable our end users without me having to be available and fly all around the world.' Discover how WalkMe for SAP SuccessFactors HCM can help drive adoption and streamline HR processes. This story also appears on the SAP News Center.
