Travel

Successful start with Travel Service Airlines in Switzerland
With the insolvency of the Hello charter airline, Hotelplan Suisse lost its biggest and most important partner right at the start of the financial year. The tour operator was unable to recover from the resulting changes in 2013, which weighed on the sales figures. This was offset by retailing business: despite sales losses due to the political situation in Egypt, invoiced sales remained virtually the same as in the previous year at CHF 837.8 million (2012: CHF 839.2 million).

Due to the loss of sales in tour operating, the operating profit was lower than in the previous year: in 2013 Hotelplan Suisse reported an EBITDA figure of CHF 9.5 million (2012: CHF 17.3 million) and an EBIT figure of CHF 2.1 million (2012: CHF 9.9 million). Thanks to stable business at the business travel brand of bta first travel, the company managed to deal effectively with the change of charter airline and the partial travel ban on Egypt. The new partnership with the Travel Service Airlines charter airline paid off and will be continued in 2014.

Interhome Group with new sales platform
The Interhome holiday home agency improved its operating performance compared to the previous year, thanks especially to the optimisation of operating costs. The company recorded a 1.0% increase in sales to CHF 182.9 million (2012: CHF 181.0 million). The EBITDA of CHF 2.8 million (2012: CHF 2.6 million) and the EBIT of CHF 1.6 million (2012: CHF 1.1 million) confirm the robust business model. A new online platform was also introduced in the reporting year, which should have a positive effect on future bookings.

Travelwindow Group with optimised operating costs
Major factors in the Travelwindow Group's positive result were the optimised operating costs and the successful start by the new CEO Inka Nobel. With moderately positive results from travel.ch and travel.at, invoiced sales in the reporting year under review amounted to CHF 70.2 million (2012: 70.6 million), with EBITDA at CHF 0.2 million (2012: CHF –1.6 million) and EBIT at CHF 0.0 million (2012: CHF –2.3 million).

Good results abroad
The turnaround in 2013 was driven by Hotelplan UK, which again achieved outstanding results. At GBP 196.6 million, sales targets for the 2012/2013 financial year were exceeded (2012: GBP 181.5 million). EBITDA was GBP 5.7 million (2012: CHF 1.3 million), with EBIT at CHF 4.0 million (2012: GBP –0.8 million).

Hotelplan Italia's results in 2013 were considerably better than in the previous year. Massive restructuring resulted in more efficient cost structures and the product range was streamlined. This caused sales to fall to EUR 75.8 million (2012: EUR 108.1 million), although this figure was achieved with much better margins and more efficiency. As a result, the EBITDA figure improved by EUR 10.1 million to CHF –6.6 million (2012: CHF –16.7 million).

Continuation of proven sustainable development measures
Hotelplan Suisse continued the core sustainable development activities in the reporting year. The tour operator has maintained its successful partnership with the myclimate foundation (keyword: carbon offsetting tickets) to compensate business flights and customer flights. The collaboration with Travelife, which assesses hotels around the world against standardised criteria, was also continued. The range of sustainable hotels was presented on Hotelplan's new, dynamic website. In the year under review, due attention was also given to the commitments in the area of child protection. For example, regular internal courses were held on the fight against child sex tourism, which were attended by a record number of people.

Targets and outlook
In addition to establishing its partnership with Travel Service Airlines, the management of the Hotelplan Group will continue to focus on the internet, where new milestones will be set in 2014 with Migros-ferien.ch, globusreisen.ch and travel.ch.