Revenues from international operations contributed to a 90% rise in second quarter revenues to $613 million at online booking giant Priceline.
Overall revenues rose by 44% to $1.1 billion over the same period last year, spurred by strong international growth. Profits more than doubled from $115 million for the equivalent period in 2010 to $256.4 million.
Second quarter gross travel bookings of all travel services reached $5.8 billion, an increase of 70% over a year ago. Priceline is the parent of the European online hotel reservation website booking.com.
Company chief executive Jeffery Boyd said the strong second quarter was driven by global hotel and rental car bookings, which increased by 56% and 55% respectively compared to the second quarter of last year.
Priceline’s third-quarter outlook predicted continued increases in travel bookings.
Boyd said: “Priceline.com’s airline ticketing business experienced its strongest quarterly growth in the last six quarters, with ticket sales up 7%, and opaque ticket sales well in excess of that.
“Our airline partners participated more aggressively in our opaque service in the quarter’s high fare environment and priceline.com also benefitted competitively from having a larger complement of available airlines compared to other airline ticketing services.”
Looking forward, he said: “Economic pressures around the world are giving leisure and business travelers ample reasons to look for maximum value in their travel spending.
“As we enter the height of the summer travel season, we believe that the brands represented in the Priceline Group offer superior value to our customers and we continue to work toward extending our services to new markets and consumers around the world.”