On The Beach reports strong trading amid eastern Med rebound

On The Beach reports strong trading amid eastern Med rebound

On the Beach Group today reported strong summer bookings growth with a rebound in demand for eastern Mediterranean destinations. The reduction in overall capacity in the market following the Monarch failure in October also led to significant year-on-year seat price … Continue reading

On the Beach Group today reported strong summer bookings growth with a rebound in demand for eastern Mediterranean destinations.

The reduction in overall capacity in the market following the Monarch failure in October also led to significant year-on-year seat price increases for winter departures.

“Although other carriers have added incremental capacity, this is primarily for departures from Easter 2018 onwards with the effect that summer 2018 seat prices have remained broadly flat year-on-year,” the company said in a trading update prior to its annual meeting today.

“These pricing factors, together with a return of customer demand for destinations in the eastern Mediterranean, are helping to drive strong bookings growth for summer 2018 departures and is more than offsetting any weakness in the market for late winter departures.”

On the Beach reported revenue growth of 23% in the four months to the end of January.

“This performance reflects the continued strength of the core business combined with substantial growth of revenues from Sunshine.co.uk. This has been achieved notwithstanding the reinvestment of a significant proportion of the incremental Sunshine.co.uk revenues into marketing activity,” the company added.

International sites in Sweden and Norway continued to show strong growth. The group is soon to expand its international proposition, www.ebeach, into Denmark.

Chief executive  Simon Cooper said: “The first four months of the new financial year has delivered another solid period of growth for the On the Beach, Sunshine and ebeach brands.

“Our strategy of investing in our brands, talent and technology to drive growth has delivered performance in line with the board’s expectations, with consumers attracted to our wide range of value for money beach holidays.

“Our third nationwide television advertising campaign started on Christmas Day and has helped drive this strong performance as our brand awareness continues to grow.

“The board remains confident in the group’s outlook and will continue to evaluate opportunities to enhance its market share position.”

Interim results for the six months to March 31 are due to be issued on May 10.