Package holiday company Tui Group has recorded strong demand for Easter holiday trips to destinations with “guaranteed sun”, as it expects a busy summer and bookings to return to pre-Covid levels.

The optimistic update led to a big jump in the firm’s share price, which was up by around 13 per cent on Thursday morning.

The German-headquartered tourism business revealed that Britons were being drawn to countries around the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands especially, seeking sun, relaxation and activities abroad.

Turkey, the Balearics, Spain, Egypt and Greece are also popular destinations for holidaymakers this year.

More than 500,000 customers have booked a Tui holiday over Easter, the firm said.

It expects its load factor – which airlines use to measure the proportion of seats on a plane that are filled – to be around 95 per cent for the period, which it said was broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels.

The travel and tourism industry has been slowly recovering from Covid, which first struck in March 2020, shutting down international borders and having a lasting effect on people’s hesitancy to travel.

The sector has also been impacted by severe staff shortages that led to major disruption for airports such as Heathrow last summer, with sudden flight cancellations and long delays.

Tui assured investors that people were willing to travel as it recorded a big increase in booking momentum since the start of the year.

Consumers were continuing to book at shorter notice and preferring package holidays and all-inclusive offers, it noted.

Sebastian Ebel, chief executive of Tui Group, said: “Booking momentum remains encouraging and the travel trends and strong demand for the Easter holidays are a healthy signal for the upcoming summer.

“Our products and strong brand are popular and in high demand – in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and many other markets where people are looking for relaxation in the sun and active experiences.

“Based on trends to date and, as we have said in March, we continue to anticipate capacity to be close to pre-pandemic levels. We expect a good summer 2023.”