TUI Pushes Past 100 TUI BLUE Hotels With Eight New Signings

TUI has signed agreements for eight new TUI BLUE hotels, pushing the brand past 100 properties worldwide. That is the headline number, and it lands mostly in summer 2027, with follow-on openings in 2028 and 2029.

The signings span four markets: Egypt, Bulgaria, Croatia and Portugal. They build on previously announced 2027 openings in Italy, so the pipeline now runs through Calabria (TUI BLUE Conchiglia), Sardinia (TUI BLUE Pardu), near Venice (TUI BLUE Aura Maris), Lisbon (TUI BLUE Rossio) and Spain (TUI BLUE Sevilla Suites).

Where is the capacity actually going?

Five of the eight new properties sit in Egypt, all developed through TUI's joint venture with JAZ (a shared-ownership venture that co-develops and co-operates the hotels). The timing is not accidental. TUI has scheduled the Egyptian cluster around the August 2027 total solar eclipse, which will put Hurghada and Safaga in the path of a predictable demand spike.

The Egypt lineup splits by segment. Adults-only TUI BLUE Vistamar and family-friendly TUI BLUE Makadi Oasis both open in summer 2027 in Hurghada and Safaga. TUI BLUE Palace Sharm follows in summer 2028, with a new-build property in Marsa Alam planned for summer 2029.

For sellers of travel, that is the real story: five properties from one JV in one country, aimed squarely at eclipse-year demand. It's capacity planning with a calendar event attached, not a scattergun map exercise.

What does Europe add?

Three European properties launch in summer 2027, all refurbishments or conversions rather than ground-up builds:

• TUI BLUE Arabella, Varna — 294 rooms after a full refurbishment, the largest of the European trio
• TUI BLUE Diane, Brač — 120 rooms at opening, expanding to 155 in 2028
• TUI BLUE Calheta Beach, Madeira — 153 rooms on the island's southwest coast

The room counts matter more than the ribbon-cuttings. Varna alone adds nearly as many rooms as the Croatian and Madeiran properties combined. Inventory is what distribution teams book against, and Bulgaria is carrying the European share here.

Why does the 100-property mark matter?

TUI BLUE is TUI's proprietary leisure brand, and crossing 100 properties signals scale that few tour-operator-owned hotel brands reach. Owned and JV inventory gives TUI margin control that bed-bank sourcing can't match — the hotel becomes an in-house product rather than a commission line.

The sequencing tells its own story. Summer 2027 absorbs the bulk of the openings, with Italy's previously announced properties and the eclipse-driven Egypt cluster converging in one season. 2028 and 2029 add the tail: Palace Sharm, Marsa Alam and the Brač expansion.

TUI has not disclosed room counts for the Egyptian properties or the commercial terms of the JAZ agreements. The 100-plus figure is confirmed; the revenue contribution is not yet quantified. Sellers watching this pipeline should note the pattern: branded, seasonally targeted, and increasingly weighted toward markets where TUI controls both the bed and the plane.

The next test comes in summer 2027, when the eclipse traffic and the Italian openings have to convert pipeline into occupancy.