Travel operator says it expects to report in-line trading in its 6-month update this summer
Companies: Thomas Cook Group
Travel company Thomas Cook has reiterated its full-year guidance in a trading update to investors, saying summer bookings have increased 10%, winters bookings were flat, and EBIT is on track to hit expectations. TCG also said tourists had started to return to Egypt and Turkey following political turmoil.
In a pre-close trading update ahead of its six months results to 31 March 2017, the FTSE 250 firm said bookings for Summer 2017 were 42% sold, 1% ahead of the same point last year, with sales up 10% Yoy. However, the comparable period last year was admittedly rather weak as sales were disrupted by a series of geopolitical events.
The Group added that demand for Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia and Portugal had all grown, marking quite a different picture to last year where the Refugee crisis grabbed headlines and sales in several Balkan states dropped. Tourists from the UK have also started to travel to Egypt and Turkey following last year's failed coup, and the threat of terror incidents in those countries.
Meanwhile, Northern Europe also is trading well for the company, with bookings up by 11% and average prices up 2%, and bookings in Continental Europe also "significantly higher" with double-digit growth in most countries.
The company said it was seeing some margin pressure as parts of the business faced intense competition, overall demand for holidays was strong.
"Based on our current trading performance, and supported by further financial benefits from implementing our strategy, we continue to expect our full year underlying operating result to be in line with current market expectations."
CEO Peter Fankhauser said customers' appetites to go abroad was good across all markets, despite the uncertainty of 2016. He added that the Group was confident in its performance for the rest of the year.
