Club Travel revenues down 65% last year after record 2019

Revenues at Club Travel were down about 65 per cent last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic after a record year for the business in 2019.

The owner of the Irish travel company, Liam Lonergan, said he has “no expectations of business” for the 2021 summer season but is “mildly optimistic for 2022”.

Mr Lonergan stated the Club Travel group is strong financially and has great systems in place to get it through the crisis, “even if it’s a slow recovery”.

In December 2019, Club Travel bought Atlas Travel Services and the combined revenues from the businesses totalled €218 million for 2019. However, the purchase came only months before Covid-19 decimated the travel industry.

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At the end of October 2019, Club Travel Holdings Ltd’s balance sheet showed cash funds of €61.3 million.

Mr Lonergan was commenting on accounts which show that in the 12 months to the end of October 2019, Club Travel Holdings Ltd’s pre-tax profits increased by 34.5 per cent to €5.26 million.

Staff costs

Boosted by the firm acting as the official travel agent for the Rugby World Cup in Japan, revenues in 2019 increased by 7 per cent from €152.34 million to €163.8 million, and numbers employed dipped marginally to 197 as staff costs totalled €7.6 million.

The company acts as the Government’s travel agent, but Mr Lonergan said business from the contract “has been close to zero” since March of last year.

On how the travel business will fare this year, Mr Lonergan said it will take time “for confidence to return even though many people want to go on holidays – they will wait to see how the vaccines are rolled out abroad as well as here”.

He said many of the company’s staff have been on temporary layoff since March 2020 while the remainder spent much of 2020 obtaining refunds from the company’s suppliers and refunding customers. The Government’s wage subsidy schemes had been “very helpful in maintaining staff levels”, Mr Lonergan said.