Online travel companies have reported favourable trading conditions over the summer despite what appears to be serious difficulties elsewhere in the travel industry. Expedia admitted that the market had been “challenging and difficult to predict” following concerns over security in the UK and the effects of the World Cup in Germany, but it performed well…
Online weathers summer lull
Online travel companies have reported favourable trading conditions over the summer despite what appears to be serious difficulties elsewhere in the travel industry.
Expedia admitted that the market had been “challenging and difficult to predict” following concerns over security in the UK and the effects of the World Cup in Germany, but it performed well against other traditional agent markets and tour operators.
Speaking at a meeting of Travolution’s executive advisory board, other online players, including Lastminute.com, said they have seen continued growth in the hotel-only and dynamic packing sectors but flight-only products remained flat.
Thomson said its package holidays were down around 4% on last year but flight-only, accommodation-only and dynamically packaged products had seen “huge growth”.
The news that online travel operations have weathered the worst of an increasingly depressed market runs counter to a string of travel companies.
Last week MyTravel issued a profits warning to the Square Mile and revealed a decrease in the number of year-on-year winter bookings.
In August Thomas Cook was reported to have issued a memo to staff admitting trading conditions in the industry were at their worst level for 15 years and 300,000 holidays were still be sold.
