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“We’ve turned the corner”, insists Travel.com.au

Travel.com.au has insisted it can finally begin to focus on its core business after a year of transition for the company, writes Steve Jones. After posting losses for the year of $692,000 – a 57 per cent improvement on last year’s $1.6 million deficit – managing director Adam Johnson said the business was now positioned for growth.

“Any managing director whose company has made a loss should not be satisfied and I am not,” he said. “But this has been a year of transition. We are now on top of everything. It’s not our policy to talk about future financial performance but I believe we have turned the corner.”

He said major changes – and challenges - during the year involved a “planned and managed” reduction of travel.com.au’s offline sales to online. Offline transactions decreased 35 per cent with online growing 18 per cent.

He admitted the online growth “could have been better”.

In addition, its lastminute brand transferred management processes and systems to Australia having previously been based in the UK, an arrangement which led to “system problems.”