Business at
Business at
Since early March, more bookings have been posted per week in the important markets Switzerland, France and the United States than during the same period in 2001. As at 6 May 2002, that is after more than four months into the new financial year, booked sales in Switzerland stood a mere -11% below the figure for the same date one year earlier. A decline in bookings has still been registered primarily for holiday destinations in the United States, Egypt and Dubai. In contrast to this, turnover for travel to Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, the Caribbean and the Maldives tops last year. Regardless of the new trend towards booking at short notice noticeable in the United Kingdom, more than 77% of the budgeted annual sales have already been reached, though the booking volume is still -15% below the level of the preceding year. In France, this percentage comes to -28%, a substantial improvement over the booking volume in March of 2002. In Scandinavia, bookings were -16% lower on 6 May than they were at the same date in 2001, which was also expected due to reduced charter capacities. Intrav in the United States reports that its bookings already amount to 75% of the budgeted annual sales. The booking volume stands at -23% below the preceding year.
The Kuoni Group projects that business will continue to normalise in the absence of extraordinary events. Owing to the weak bookings turned in at the beginning of the year compared with 2001, turnover in the first 6 months of the year will, as expected, be clearly less than for the same period one year earlier. The cost cutting programme implemented last autumn throughout the Kuoni Group will have a positive impact on EBITA and partly compensate for the declines in turnover. This explains why EBITA in the first half of 2002 will be only slightly lower than the 2001 result. Group result will be decidedly lower than the preceding year since the extraordinary income resulting from the sale of N-U-R Neckermann in 2001 will be absent. In view of the fact that the fourth quarter of 2002 in particular offers catch-up potential over 2001, the Kuoni Group projects turnover for all of fiscal 2002 that will, at the least, roughly match the figure for the preceding year.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
