Asiatravel.com posts 22% rise in Q3 Singapore hotel bookings

Asiatravel.com posts 22% rise in Q3 Singapore hotel bookings

By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

DESPITE a drop in Asia-bound traffic from major markets, online hotel reservation service provider Asiatravel.com Holdings remains optimistic, having registered third-quarter growth of 22 per cent year on year in online bookings for hotel room nights.

Taking into account the 26 per cent growth in the first half of the year (October 2007-March 2008), year-on-year growth for the first three quarters worked out to 25 per cent.

April and May chalked up growth of 27 per cent and 23 per cent respectively, while June saw a growth of 17 per cent.

‘The global economic slowdown has affected the tourism industry, especially long-haul travel from US and Europe into Asia,’ Asiatravel.com said in a statement. ‘Despite the economic slowdown, the group is optimistic of maintaining positive room nights growth, as it has broadened its destination footprint and expanded its reach into the mass market.’

Asiatravel.com plans to launch multi-language websites in Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Japanese and Arabic in an effort to tap these large Asian markets.

It has been expanding its services from online hotel reservations to hotel and travel reservations. As such, customers can book flights as well as hotel and flight packages departing from 10 countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates. By end-2008, customers will be able to purchase combined hotel and flight packages for all key countries in Asia.

Asiatravel.com’s net profit rose 37.2 per cent to $4.5 million for the year ended Sept 30, 2007. Revenue was up 23.3 per cent to $70.5 million. Earnings per share rose to 2.33 cents from 1.7 cents.

Source : Business Times - 17 July 2008

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