AN ad for travel firm Tui has been banned for the "misleading" claim that summer holidays can be taken in September and October.

A travel period between September 1 and October 31 was "unlikely to align" with consumers' understanding of the term summer holiday and was therefore misleading, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled.

The television ad for Tui holidays in June featured a voice-over stating, "It's not too late to discover Turkey with Tui from £279 per person this summer … Perfect summer holidays that put you in the middle", while on-screen text specified that the price applied to departures between September 1 and October 31.

A viewer claimed the departure dates were not during the summer holiday period and complained the ad was misleading.

Tui said its summer holiday period ran from April 1 to October 31, pointing out that the ad showed both adult-only groups as well as families.

Ad clearance agency Clearcast said the first two weeks of departures were still within summer months and suggested it would have been confusing to spell out that the offer covered summer and autumn.

The ASA said consumers would interpret the term "summer holidays" to mean holidays available for travel during the calendar months of June, July and August.

It said: "We acknowledged Tui's comments regarding their own summer holiday period and the use of both adult and family-oriented groups within the ad. We also acknowledged Clearcast's comments that the first two weeks of departure were still within the astronomical summer period, which ran into September.

"However, we did not consider that a travel period of September and October only was likely to align with consumers' understanding of the term in the context of the ad."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form, adding: "We told Tui UK to ensure that their future advertising did not mislead by claiming to offer summer holidays if those holidays were outside of the period that consumers were likely to consider as summer."

A Tui spokesman said: "We note the ASA's ruling and can confirm that we've already taken action to amend this advert for future use."