TUI sticks to FY profit target, sees turnover up 3 pct

BERLIN, Aug 10 (Reuters) - European tourism group TUI (Swiss: TUI1.SW - news) stuck to its profit target for the year as it made a nine-month core profit for the first time and said it expected annual turnover to rise by more than 3 percent.

The group on Thursday reported third quarter underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) of 221.6 million euros ($260.1 million), giving a total of 7.3 million for the first nine months of the year.

At constant currency and excluding the impact of the later Easter this year, underlying core Q3 earnings were 191 million euros.

It confirmed a target for core earnings to rise by at least 10 percent this year, compared with last year's 1.03 billion euros.

($1 = 0.8520 euros) (Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Maria Sheahan)