Wotif.com will be realeasing their results for the year ending December 2008 on 18 February and this will be available via their website - should make interesting reading...
Sara Rich
16 February 2009
Article from: The Australian
Online travel agent Webjet and online accommodation company Wotif.com Holdings are actually benefiting from the global downturn as bargain hunters scour the internet for top holiday deals.
Webjet's net profit rose 29 per cent to $3.7 million in the December half from $2.9 million a year ago, while total revenue climbed 20.4 per cent to $13.97 million after a 19 per cent increase in total transaction numbers.
Webjet managing director David Clarke said airline pricing wars had fuelled Webjet's growth.
"The Australian travel market, certainly for the last three months but arguably even the last six months, has been in the most chaotic state that I have ever seen it," he said.
"We have such a deluge of airline price initiatives and opportunities that a consumer trying to get on top of this amount of data has a very difficult task."
With travel demand soaring despite the economic downturn -- evidenced by strong search activity on the online service -- Mr Clarke said the holiday market had become bargain-sensitive.
"Whether this is because the airlines are feeding it and creating the expectations or whether it is consumers just hunting down the cheapest possible deal because of economic circumstances is clearly more difficult to determine," he said. "But it doesn't actually matter because the only way to effectively keep up with the deals is to go to the internet."
Webjet shares remained flat yesterday at $1.15.
Wotif, which benefited from its decision to extend the booking window from 28 days to three months, flagged a 20 per cent boost in first-half profit from the $17.06 million booked a year ago as travellers looked to stretch their holiday budgets.
The company's shares rose slightly yesterday to $3.26 ahead of the group's half-year results announcement on February 18.
Source: Click HERE
