A visit to TUI.de, the German travel site, reveals the look and feel of a travel catalog. On a white background, catchy adverts and headlines compete for the visitor's attention with tones of orange, green, and blues reminiscent of mass-produced vacation catalogs. If the homepage does not linger on pictures of sun-flooded beaches or a Parisian brasserie by the Eiffel tower, the simple design is nonetheless effective in connoting package tours and organized travel.

The framed thumbnail pictures with headlines and captions are very effective on TUI.de. While organizing the information logically, it also creates a retail space that is approachable.

The site falls short however from being pleasant to browse. TUI's online presence is indeed largely driven by its technology—essentially, the querying of databases—and suffers from a lack of human emotions. It is the equivalent of walking on a neatly paved beach: Clean, effective, but not quite close enough to the warm and sensual dream that probably drove you to TUI in the first place.