Saga announces travel revenue slump
Saga tour operations’ booked revenues are down 4% compared with 2018 and the over 50s specialist expects its cruise business to lose £3 million in the first half of this year.
In a trading update released this morning ahead of the company’s AGM at 11am, Saga said: "Conditions in the travel market are very competitive and affected by current political uncertainties.
"The group’s tour operations business is not immune to such pressures, with booked revenues for the full year down 4% as of 15 June when compared to the same period last year. In addition, margins for this year will be impacted by competitive discounting."
It blamed the cruise business loss on the sale of the Saga Pearl II in April, as well as training, launch and marketing costs relating to the Spirit of Discovery, which will launch next month.
It said cruise bookings were ‘more resilient’ than the rest of its travel business, and forward bookings for the 2020-21 year for its two new ships, Spirit of Discovery and, coming in 2020, Spirit of Adventure, are ‘broadly on track’.
The financial benefits of the new Spirit of Discovery are expected to start accruing from the date of the first cruise in July, it said. Spirit of Discovery’s cruises are almost 86% booked for the rest of 2019 and 2020.
Outgoing CEO Lance Batchelor, who will retire in January, said: "We are resolutely focused on the execution of our new strategy and have a clear set of priorities. Against challenging headwinds in both travel and insurance, we see early signs of progress in stabilising our retail broking business and forward bookings for the cruise business have been resilient."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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