Britain's First Choice Holidays further narrowed first-half losses today as the company revealed strong summer bookings and said it was looking at further acquisitions and new markets.
Chief Executive Peter Long said forward bookings remained strong and there was, as yet, no sign of the consumer slowdown that had affected high street spending.
Summer bookings for its mainstream holiday sector were up 11 per cent, specialist holidays up 33 per cent and activity holidays up 8 per cent, excluding skiing, First Choice said.
"We will continue to show good strong organic growth coming from both the long haul and medium haul, particularly Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey . . . and to find bolt-on acquisitions in our specialist segments, particularly in the activities sector and specialist holidays," Mr Long told reporters.
Mr Long added that the company would spend £30 million to £40 million a year on acquisitions.
First Choice made a pretax loss before exceptional items and goodwill of £34.1 million in the six months to April 30th, beating analyst expectations of a loss of £35-£37 million.
Three years ago, First Choice started to move away from the cut-throat short-haul market into medium and long-haul holidays.
As a result, short-haul customer numbers and revenue fell by 15 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in the first half, but total revenue rose 5 per cent as increased capacity from medium and long-haul holidays came on board.