The Hotelplan Group has recovered well from the corona diver, explains Laura Meyer, head of the travel group belonging to the Migros Group, in a communiqué on Thursday. (archive image)
Overall, the Hotelplan Group achieved sales of CHF 1.4 billion in the 2021/2022 financial year (November 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022), as the company announced in a communiqué on Thursday. This means that the travel group is back on the upswing after sales plummeted to CHF 644.8 million in the previous year due to the pandemic.
This means that sales are more than a fifth higher than the last pandemic-free year 2019. “I am very pleased that all business units were able to operate profitably again after the challenging pandemic years,” explained group boss Laura Meyer.
At the beginning, the financial year was still shaped by the pandemic. From mid-February to the end of October, however, there was a very strong need to catch up. “Customers’ desire to travel was great – both on holiday trips and on business trips,” it said.
After a slow start to the 2021/22 financial year, there was a real booking boom at Hotelplan Suisse from the spring. Sales more than tripled to CHF 158.2 million (previous year: CHF 45.0 million). This is mainly due to the repositioning of the two brands Travelhouse and Tourisme pour tous, which specialize in individual travel.
The greatest pent-up demand was for beach holidays and city breaks. In particular, destinations around the wider Mediterranean were extremely popular with customers. Accordingly, Volume Tour Operating – with the Hotelplan, Migros Ferien and Vtours brands – increased sales to CHF 703.1 million from CHF 314.8 million in the previous year.
Business in the UK also recovered markedly after people were again able to travel almost without restrictions. In both the winter and summer months, Hotelplan UK’s customers were increasingly drawn to the holidays. Sales shot up from £5.5m to £150.9m.
At the same time, the boom triggered by the pandemic at the holiday home and apartment provider Interhome continued: Never before had so many guests opted for a holiday apartment or holiday home, wrote the Hotelplan Group. Sales grew to 371 million from 275 million last year. This is the best year in Interhome’s 57-year history.
“The business travel providers Finass and BTA First Travel are increasingly finding their way back to normal, albeit, as expected, more slowly than the other business units,” it said. However, both companies were able to acquire numerous new customers in the past year.
Thanks to the new customers and the increasing demand for business travel, BTA First Travel achieved sales of 7.5 million Swiss francs. That is three times more than in the previous year. At Finass Reisen, sales more than doubled to CHF 5.6 million.
For the current financial year, the Hotelplan Group is optimistic despite the rise in prices and the gloomier economic outlook. They are satisfied with the current booking status, although the level of 2019 has not yet been reached. This is partly due to the fact that holidays are still booked at short notice. “We are on course and expect – as of today – in the current financial year with a higher turnover than in the past,” said CEO Meyer.