All four of its divisions – Education, Hotel Breaks, Adventure Travel and Camping – are showing growth in current year revenues booked as at July. Overall, the group is now booked at 93% of its target sales.
Sales for 2007/08 in the Education division, which includes new acquisition European Study Tours, together with the PGL and NST brands, are 9% ahead year-on-year. For 2008/9 the division is 40% booked and showing sales growth of 3%.
Hotel Breaks (Superbreak, Theatrebreak, The Luxury Hotel Collection and West End Theatre Bookings) sales are currently 3% ahead, although the company said it had seen a ‘noticeable slowing of recent intake in the UK, with London particularly affected’.
However, it pointed out that last year had benefited from strong early sales to the Joseph and Grease musicals and the Tutankhamun and Terracotta Army exhibitions.
‘There are indications of increased room availability and softening hotel room leisure rates, which should allow for better value propositions in the autumn,’ Holidaybreak said.
Sales in the Adventure Travel division, comprising Explore, Regaldive, Djoser, carpe diem Sprachreisen and TravelWorks, are also up 3% this year. Sales for 2008/9 are 4% ahead and the division is around 20% booked.
Finally, Camping sales are 1% higher, a ‘strong performance’ on capacity 5% below last year. The division has benefited from robust late UK sales at healthy yields and also good growth in its Dutch business related to the strength of the euro.
Carl Michel, Holidaybreak chief executive, commented: ‘To date, the current financial year is broadly in line with our expectations, though we still have some key selling weeks remaining.
‘Looking forward to the next financial year, the general economic environment may be more challenging, putting further pressure on disposable incomes.
‘However, I remain pleased that the spread of our businesses across different travel segments and in various European markets provides us with trading resilience.
‘The group’s two divisions which have visibility for 2008/9, Education and Adventure Travel, are both demonstrating healthy trading.’
Holidaybreak will release a pre-close trading update in the week ending 19 September 2008.
See also:
Holidaybreak expands Education division (24/06/08)
Holidaybreak ‘delighted’ by education [H1s] (16/05/08)
Education pays off for Holidaybreak (13/02/08)
Holidaybreak CEO unconcerned by credit crunch (25/01/08)
Holidaybreak adds second education specialist (01/10/07)