A later booking trend is emerging, according to Lowcost Travel Group as it predicted a strong year in 2015 with three million passengers targeted – a rise of 500,000.
The group, which claimed a 30% rise in overall sales since the start of the year, announced the appointment of Francesco de Marchis as chief technology officer, joining this month from previous roles at Jac Travel and Orbitz.
Group chief operating officer Alex Gisbert said: “Oil prices at a five-year low, combined with the falling euro, are giving a boost to everyone in the travel industry and we believe that there will be continued demand although we can see a later booking profile emerging.
“Our investment over the last five years in a strong senior management team, an enhanced brand, technology, international sales, increased supply and additional marketing resources are delivering returns.
“In addition, the regional offices in Atlanta and Bangkok are driving significant new growth and opportunities,” added Gisbert.
Lowcost Beds, the Swiss-based bed bank, doubled its buying team and inventory last year, adding key hotel chains and channel managers to its existing leisure stock across Europe, the US and Asia.
“Our trade business remains the key growth area with almost 60% of sales from outside the UK,” said Gisbert.
“Demand continues to increase from our global customers and trade for all the top hotel chains, as we target 50,000 agents in 50 source markets by the end of the year.”
“As I look across the group I´m excited about three things – the pace of room night growth the group is driving overall into our new hotel relationships, the usage and ROI our app is delivering and the quality of the team we have now built across our trade and B2C businesses globally.”
OTA Lowcost Holidays also reported a successful start to the year with share continuing to grow on the back of high profile TV campaigns. The brand is now established across the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain and Italy.