LastMinuteTravel.com
today announced that the company has achieved profitability in March 2003. 
The company made the announcement at the Travelcom Conference in New York, citing growth in both advertising and promotional revenues, as well as a marked increase in revenue from consumer sales that are now transacted on the site.

“Because of the turbulent geo-
political situation, the market for travel at the last minute has grown dramatically in the past few months,” said Alan Greenberg, chairman and CEO of The Last Minute Travel® Network.  “But we contribute the dramatic growth of revenue for LastMinuteTravel.com to three equally important business fundamentals that all came together simultaneously:  the increasing surge of demand for last-minute travel, the re-engineering of the site and its technology; and the implementation of new partnerships increasing the selection of value-priced inventory on the site.  Today, LastMinuteTravel.com is in a premier position for capturing and fulfilling the growing market demand for travel at the last minute,” added Greenberg.

The Last Minute Travel Network reported a 100% growth in overall revenue since March of 2002, with a surge in transaction income providing an added boost to total revenue.  “Crossing the hurdle to profitability is a major achievement for LastMinuteTravel.com, but we recognize this as the beginning of a new challenge,” added Greenberg.  “Our short term goal is to increase advertising and promotional revenues by an additional 50% over the next six months, triple transaction revenues, and continue to expand the site’s inventory of value priced last-minute offers.” 

The Last Minute Travel Network has also just announced an agreement with Tourico Holiday Flights, Inc., that will provide LastMinuteTravel.com shoppers with direct access to tens-of-thousands of discounted hotel rooms, rental cars and select airline fares, exclusively offered on LastminuteTravel.com.  The Tourico inventory is being integrated into LastMinuteTravel.com’s extensive selection of last-minute travel deals, and this expanded array of offers will be available to consumers by the end of this month.  And in keeping with its consumer proposition to be the best site for spontaneous travel, LastMinuteTravel.com does not charge any booking fees or premiums, which are prominent on other online travel sites. 

Related stories on ITN:

(21/02/2003) LastMinuteTravel.com Partnership Creates Cruise Club

(04/02/2003) LastMinuteTravel.com Reports a Record-Setting January

 

(13/08/2003) Worldspan Partnership with LastMinuteTravel Network

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