Saga profits soar as over 50s travel further and spend more
Saga revealed today that its over 50s customers were travelling further and spending more, helping to boost the revenue of its travel arm by 11% to £423.1 million last year.
Trading profit for the year to the end of January was up 26.5% to £17.2 million.
"Within our tour operating businesses we have seen a shift in the mix of sales to longer-haul, higher-value products where we can provide our customers with both security and a highly differentiated product," it said in a statement.
"The success of this shift is attributable to our ability to know more about our customers’ wants and needs than any other provider, and to create affordable packages underpinned by excellent service."
Its tour operating arm saw a 9.9% rise in customers to 189,000 last year while its cruise passenger days were up 0.9%. It has sold 75% of its holiday packages for this year and it has sold 90% of its cruise capacity.
The Saga Sapphire will be in wet dock for two months this year for scheduled maintenance, which, the company said, will hold back the total profit growth in the travel business for 2016.
Cruise revenue up to April 9 was down 2.2% for the year, but tour operating revenue was up 5%.
Work is underway to build the ‘next generation Saga cruise ship’, said the company, with delivery expected in 2019.
"Cruising remains a vital part of our travel offering through our two ships, the Saga Sapphire and Saga Pearl II," it said.
"The business had another good year with load factors of 84.4% (2015: 84.9%) across both ships and a 0.9% increase in the number of ship passenger days to 339k (2015: 336k)."
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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