Travelsupermarket suffers half-year revenue drop

Travelsupermarket.com suffered a 7% half year drop in revenue to £7.1 million due to a decline in searches for flights and hotels.

Travelsupermarket.com suffered a 7% half-year drop in revenue to £7.1 million due to a decline in searches for flights and hotels.


Click-based revenue was down by 6% to £6.6 million in the six months to June.


Travel revenues fell in what remains a challenging market, parent company Moneysupermarket.com said.


“The group’s package holidays channel continued to grow following continued investment and website optimisation,” the half-year financial results statement said.


“Car hire revenues held up well, linked in part to the success of the package holidays channel.


“However, flights and hotels more typically associated with discretionary expenditure and weekend travel continued to decline as these markets continued to weaken.”


Moneysupermarket.com’s after-tax profit for the six months was pegged at £8.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 25% to £28.7 million over the first half of 2011.


The company said: “In the second half the group intends to further invest in its web front end and its data systems to improve both user experience in what customers see and importantly how the group uses and organises its data to provide relevant deals and offers to its customers.”


Trading in July was described as being in line with expectations with revenues approximately 10% ahead of the same period last year.


“The board remains confident in the prospects for the full year,” Moneysupermarket.com said.