THOMAS Cook is reporting strong summer demand for Greece, Cyprus, Croatia and Bulgaria but a more ‘competitive’ UK market to the Spanish islands.

Announcing its interim results, it said following strong growth last year, bookings to the Spanish islands have ‘levelled off in a very competitive market’.

“As we highlighted previously, our UK business is managing through a more competitive market to the Spanish islands, focusing on selling higher margin, quality holidays rather than pursuing volume growth,” it said.

“As a result, charter risk pricing is up 8%, while bookings are slightly behind last year. For the UK as a whole, including seat-only and non-risk package holidays, both bookings and average selling prices are up by 2%.”

With its summer 2017 programme 61% sold, in line with last year, Thomas Cook has also seen a ‘significant’ increase in bookings to Egypt in recent weeks with ‘customers attracted by the quality and value of the destination’.

“Demand for Turkey has also improved recently, with bookings now in line with this time last year,” it said.

Overall, bookings for the group are up 12% compared to this time last year, with stronger demand for most destinations, especially Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Croatia.