Lowcost Travel Group claims latest trading figures indicate its move to add more directly contracted hotels, embrace mobile and internationalise its business is paying off.
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Lowcost moves paying off as group eyes £1bn target
Lowcost Travel Group claims latest trading figures indicate its move to add more directly contracted hotels, embrace mobile and internationalise its business is paying off.
The group, which relocated to Palma, Majorca, last year and now operates under Spanish regulation, said its international websites have seen a particular uplift.
While its UK business is up 30% year on year in the period since the start of its financial year on November 1, traffic to non-UK sites is up 50% while sales are up 40%.
The firm is now present in 47 countries and claims to have two million customers worldwide generating £350 million of sales (Total Transaction Value).
It has stated its ambition to reach TTV of £1 billion within two years and claims it is on track to achieve that.
Alex Gisbert, chief marketing officer, said: “We are delighted that our investment in hotel buying, mobile and diversification from the UK is paying off, with our growth accelerating ahead of schedule.”
Lowcost reporting increasing levels of traffic from mobile devices across all the markets it operates in, with tablet traffic up 26% and mobile traffic up 120%.
A new Lowcost Holidays app has been downloaded 40,000 times in the last fortnight.
In addition the firm says it will hit 16,000 directly contracted hotels in 2014 available through its Lowcost Beds bedbank and consumer-facing Lowcost Holidays website.
Paul Evans, chief executive, said: “Global supply is a massive challenge and our biggest investment area.
“The uptake from having the right hotel stock for travel agents and travellers across the world from 42 countries is immediate, but customer demand changes and keeping up is crucial to growth.
“Our top five trade customers are now a combination of UK, South American and Scandinavian companies, and our German business is one of our top growth areas.
“Going global means our ambition of delivering £1 billion in sales in two years is now a tangible goal.”
As well as its directly contracted stock, Lowcost says it also has access to competitive rates from 200,000 hotels via 50 XML feeds.
Lowcost Holidays is currently running a high profile UK television and outdoor advertising campaign, however growth in Lowcost Beds is outstripping its consumer business.
The firm says it has 36,000 travel agency partners in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
