Holiday demand propels Thomas Cook reservations; increase is anticipated from official events

 Holiday demand propels Thomas Cook reservations; increase is anticipated from official events

The travel aggregator anticipates strong December revenue because of the holiday season's interest.

Thomas Cook, a secure online travel aggregator (OTA), said in its earnings release of September quarter FY24 results that it has seen a 32 percent increase in advance bookings for the holiday season.

Debasis Nandy, President and Group CFO (Chief Financial Officer), told Moneycontrol that "we are seeing an increase in the demand for transportation owing to these festivals: first, Durga Puja, then Diwali and Christmas."

A strong quarter is anticipated in light of this. But the current ICC Men's Cricket World Cup hasn't generated a lot of revenue for us," he said.

Nandy predicted that significant development in terms of events would originate from major government gatherings. "We are managing Goa's accommodations for the present National Games. We participated actively in the G20 meeting and carried out 41 activities in 11 months. played a significant part in Khelo India as well. In the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) sector, government contracts are significant and provide significant revenue for us," he said.

In the second quarter of FY24, the firm declared profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 52.4 crore, compared to Rs 72.5 crore in the June quarter of the same year.

Operating income was Rs 77.6 crore, up 21% from Rs 63.9 crore in the second quarter of FY23. It was down sequentially, however, as the business recorded operating income of Rs 91.6 crore during the first quarter of FY24.

"The Indian economy is performing well overall, and we have been able to capitalize on the growing demand for travel across all market categories. Additionally, the expansion of smaller cities' infrastructure and money has given us access to a new clientele. The CFO said, "The development of airports in smaller towns throughout Vande Bharat is another story."

He went on to say that the travel industry has a significant seasonality effect, which explains why numbers are declining sequentially. "Since Q1 has school holidays, family vacations should take place at that period. It's a worse quarter in Q2. Even if demand for travel is dispersing across the months, Q1 will still be the largest quarter.

With a profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 80 crore as opposed to a loss of Rs 17.6 crore in the second quarter of FY23, the OTA saw development in its international operations.

"Restructuring and headcount rationalization are to blame for the growth in international business." To boost efficiency and automate tasks, we have developed software. Travel demand has increased on a global scale. This has contributed to volumes that are 40% higher than previous year and 38% higher than pre-Covid levels, according to Nandy.

The whole amount of travel services has returned to pre-pandemic levels, he said. Business-to-business (B2B) and MICE transactions have surpassed pre-Covid levels. Short-haul travel for pleasure is almost back to pre-Covid levels, but long-haul travel is still recovering somewhat since obtaining a visa is difficult and plane tickets are still quite expensive, which encourage people to go shorter distances."

According to Nandy, the process of approving visa applications has improved. "We had a lot of visa rejections in Q1." In India, 18% of visa applications were turned down. That rate has begun to decline. By the conclusion of this fiscal year, we anticipate that everything will return to normal."

He further emphasized that both incoming and outbound travel to India is unaffected by the Israel-Hamas conflict. There aren't many tourists that go to that region of the planet in the outbound segment. Also, there hasn't been any collateral effect from incoming travel. The season for incoming travel has already begun. According to Nandy, "so, based on the forward bookings, we may not return to the pre-Covid level at 100%, but it will be at least 70%."