Eurostar ticket sales down
Eurostar ticket sales fell to £342.2 million between January and June 2009, 7% down on the same period in 2008.
Traveller numbers also fell, by 6%, to 4.34 million, but the rail operator said they were still 11% up on 2007, before its move from Waterloo to St Pancras International and High Speed 1.
Despite the recession, Eurostar reported a 4% rise in leisure sales, thanks to a surge in inbound travel to the UK and a drive to encourage UK travellers to take advantage of the increased availability of the lead-in £59 return fare.
Chief executive Richard Brown said: “Despite market conditions, we still have good reason to be optimistic.
“We are benefiting from the strong Euro and seeing substantial increases in travellers from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, which is also helping the UK economy.
“In addition, there is growing evidence of travellers switching from plane to high-speed train for longer, connecting journeys.
“As with all businesses in the transport sector, we have long acknowledged that we would face challenging times this year.
“Also for the first seven weeks of this year we operated a reduced service as a direct result of a fire on a shuttle in the Channel Tunnel in September 2008.
“The fact is that some of our biggest business clients are from the financial and banking sectors, and it follows that as they tighten their travel budgets, we, like the airlines, feel the effects.
“We continue to seek ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency.â€
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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