Youtravel reassures agents over E-Clear debt
Saturday, 25 Jan, 2010
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Youtravel has reassured agents that they will not be impacted by online payment processor E-Clear going into administration.
The accommodation-only company faces a debt of £150,000 from E-Clear after it stopped making payments last month.
Youtravel is to move to Barclays as its merchant facility provider by the end of this month.
E-Clear was forced into administration following a High Court ruling backing the administrators of collapsed Scottish operator Globespan (see previous TravelMole story).
Youtravel group managing director Graham Nicols said: “E-Clear began delaying payments to youtravel.com in February 2009 and ceased making payments in December 2009. The current debt stands at £150,000.
“This is a small sum in relation to our turnover of well over 100 million euro and whilst we will do all possible to get it back, it will have no real impact on our 2010 focus or business performance.
“We had a relationship with E-Clear to process our B2C business, which represents a very small part of revenues. Agents payments are not affected by E-Clear.”
The new arrangements with Barclays came as Youtravel reported revenue growth of 77% in the first quarter of its financial years, which started in November 2009.
The company claimed a 15% rise in forward bookings taken in the first 20 days of January over the same period last year.
Bookings to Turkey and the Canary Islands have more than doubled while business to Spain is up by 94%.
UK sales and marketing director Paul Riches attributed the sales rise to the cold snap in the UK and an improving economic situation.
“On top of this, the fact that many people postponed overseas travel plans last year mean that they’re keen to get a holiday booked for 2010.” he said.
“Turkey’s popularity has seen a huge leap in recent years, and for it to be equal to Spain at this time of year highlights how far it has come in the past few years as a mainstream holiday choice.”
Riches added: “The dynamic packaging market is not solely about the lates market; agents and consumers are now realising more than ever that taking advantage of lower air fares and offers on hotels means a great value holiday.”
Youtravel.com has expanded capacity more than 30% through new European and long-haul destinations including hotels in the South of France, Italy, Thailand, Las Vegas and Orlando.
Around 150 hotels have been added in Italy, the majority of which are in Sicily and Tuscany. In France, 45 hotels in Cannes and Nice are now available.
Almost 200 hotels have been added in Thai resorts including Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Krabi, Koh Samui, Pattaya, Phi Phi and Phuket.
There are 300 more hotels in the US – 50 of which are in Las Vegas and 150 in Florida.
Riches said: “This growth in our portfolio reflects the growing in maturity in youtravel.com as a company, and a further expansion of at least 20% is planned in the coming months.
“We’re now in our fourth year of trading and have a great breadth of product throughout the main western and eastern European resorts. Moving into Italy and France is the next logical step for us.
“This year looks set to see a return to British travellers going to the USA as the pound has improved against the dollar. Families who may have postponed Disney trips last year due to the strength of the dollar will be enticed back to the Sunshine State, so agents who can give them more accommodation options will be most likely to secure the sale.”
*Panayiotis Avgoutis has been appointed head of IT and Harris Stavrinoudakis financial director at the company’s Athens head office.
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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