TUI AG, Europe's largest tour operator, brought forward to Sunday a board meeting scheduled for March 20. A merger of its tourism unit with First Choice Holidays Plc is on the agenda, French newspaper La Tribune reported.

TUI AG, Europe's largest tour operator, brought forward to Sunday a board meeting scheduled for March 20. A merger of its tourism unit with First Choice Holidays Plc is on the agenda, French newspaper La Tribune reported.

"I can confirm there is a board meeting today," Robin Zimmermann, a spokesman for Hanover, Germany-based TUI, said in a telephone interview Sunday. "This was originally planned for Tuesday." He declined to comment on the meeting's agenda or on the La Tribune report.

The meeting comes a month after KarstadtQuelle AG's Thomas Cook AG unit rejected a combination with Crawley, UK-based First Choice in favor of a tie-up with MyTravel Group Plc.

Travel companies are consolidating as discount airlines such as Ryanair Holdings Plc expand and more consumers arrange vacation packages using the Internet.

TUI wants to merge its tourism business, excluding hotels, with the British company through a share swap, the La Tribune article reported. First Choice's chief executive Peter Long would head the new entity, according to the newspaper. The transaction would have a similar structure to the Thomas Cook-My Travel one, La Tribune said.

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