A cross-functional commercial role for the hotel brands
The TUI group has announced that Benjamin Jacobi will join the management team of TUI Hotels & Resorts, the group’s hotel division, on 1 November 2026 as Managing Director Commercial, Marketing & Sales. He will report to Bernd Mäser, CEO of TUI Hotels & Resorts.
His remit will cover global distribution strategy and strengthening collaboration between TUI’s hotel brands and its sales channels. He will lead global marketing for the group’s six proprietary brands – Robinson, TUI Magic Life, TUI Blue, The Mora, TUI Suneo and AQI – as well as for the TUI Hotels & Resorts umbrella brand.
His responsibilities also include commercial oversight of pricing and trading, revenue management and coordination with the distribution teams. According to remarks reported by the German trade press, Bernd Mäser expects the appointment to help the group pursue its growth targets, consolidate its leading position and continue expanding internationally.
The appointment comes a few weeks after Louise Bates was named Managing Director of TUI Blue, and follows a development strategy marked this year by new TUI Blue and Robinson projects in Asia and Africa.
More than twenty years with TUI
Aged 46, Benjamin Jacobi has spent most of his career within the group, which he joined in Hanover in 2004. He began in sales steering and yield management, with responsibility for the load factor of the airline TUIfly and the occupancy of TUI Deutschland’s hotels.
Director of Yield Management for medium-haul and group travel from 2012, then Director Long-Haul and Director Trading & 1-2-FLY, he joined the management board of l’tur at the end of 2015. The tour operator, which specialises in last-minute sales and dynamic packaging, has 140 sales outlets as well as websites in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.
Initially responsible for product, he went on to oversee sales channels, marketing, product and IT, before taking over as managing director in 2017. He returned to TUI Deutschland in 2023 as Chief Commercial Officer and became its Managing Director in October 2024.
He holds a degree in international tourism economics from Hochschule Harz and also studied Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management at the University of South Carolina.
Christian Bärwind takes the helm of TUI Deutschland
At the same time, Christian Bärwind becomes Managing Director of the GAS region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and Chairman of the Management Board of TUI Deutschland, succeeding Benjamin Jacobi. He will lead TUI’s tour operating activities in the German-speaking markets and report to Mircea Tudose, member of the Group Executive Committee and Managing Director Regions within the Global Distribution division.
Aged 53, he joined TUI Deutschland in November 2025 as Director Marketing & Sales for the GAS region, after fourteen years at Google. There he held several senior roles in strategic partnerships, notably as Industry Leader Travel and then Retail, before heading the automotive, telecommunications and industrial sectors. He was also responsible for business development and partnerships at X, the moonshot factory.
His return extends a long history with the group, where he started in 2002 as a working student before moving into financial controlling, then heading Eastern Mediterranean yield management and the Long-Haul & Analytics unit. According to remarks reported by the German press, Mircea Tudose praised his understanding of the role of travel agencies and bricks-and-mortar distribution, combined with strong digital expertise, as well as the trust he has built with distribution partners since his return.
Within the same German-speaking perimeter, TUI had already renewed its governance in the spring with the appointment of Nicole Pfammatter as head of TUI Suisse.
Bringing hospitality closer to distribution
Analysis – This twofold move reflects the group’s determination to tighten the links between its hotel division and its tour operating business. By entrusting the commercialisation of its brands to an executive with a background in yield management and distribution, TUI is placing control of sales channels at the heart of the international growth sought by TUI Hotels & Resorts.
The two executives also share common ground, forged in the sales steering and yield management teams of TUI Deutschland in Hanover during the 2000s. The appointments come as the group closed the 2025 financial year with record underlying EBIT of €1.46 billion.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
TUI reshuffles leadership across hotels and distribution
Benjamin Jacobi named Managing Director Commercial, Marketing & Sales at TUI Hotels & Resorts, effective 1 November 2026
Reports to CEO Bernd Mäser; oversees global marketing for Robinson, TUI Magic Life, TUI Blue, The Mora, TUI Suneo and AQI
Remit includes pricing & trading, revenue management and sales collaboration
Christian Bärwind becomes Managing Director GAS region and Chairman of the Management Board of TUI Deutschland
Bärwind returned to TUI in 2025 after 14 years at Google
