Thomas Cook has announced that the recent civil unrest in both Tunisia and Ciaro will have cost it an estimated £20 million. The majority of this figure comes from travelers cancelling their holidays, while £6 million of the loss was the result of emergency evacuation efforts.

Regardless of the nigh-unpredictable downturn in these areas, the group is performing well in other destinations, in particular the Red Sea resorts, and summer bookings are up an average of 6% (with selling prices around £600 per person, a 5% rise on last year).

The royal Wedding in April, as well as the late Easter in this month, has also seen an upturn in business. The cluster of bank holidays this has created has lead to numerous short-term trips being taken.

Despite the optimism however, oil prices have soared in recent times and this increase looks set to continue. This could lead to fuel surcharges being put in place by Thomas Cook, according to the company itself.

In other company news, chairman of the travel group Michael Beckett has recently increased his share ownership to 100,000 after spending £100k on 55,000 of the company’s shares, at the time valued at 195.5p each. Shareholders were disappointed to see prices fall dramatically over the course of last year as a result of the European ash cloud which shut down airspace over much of the continent, as well as severe weather affecting numerous areas and resulting in major airport closures.

Beckett took up the role of chairman of Thomas Cook in September 2009, following on from previous chairmanship work at website MyTravel and a large UK casino operator.

Reported by Sam Doving.

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