Eurostar has reported an encouraging begin to the year with growth in sales revenues in the course of the first three months of the year. In comparison to an identical period in 2012, sales revenues grew by 1% to £213 million (£211 million Q1 2012), while passenger numbers remained stable year-on-year at 2.23 million (2.24 million Q1 2012).
The ongoing economic uncertainty throughout Europe continues to persuade business travel patterns particularly as many organisations maintain an in depth eye on corporate travel budgets. However, even with a protracted period of unseasonably cold and winter the ongoing resilience of Eurostar’s leisure travel market has helped deliver the cast performance in Q1.
Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive of Eurostar, said: “This is an encouraging begin to the year regardless of the challenges posed by both the economy and the elements.
“Our sales revenues have grown during 1 / 4 which saw heavy snowfalls and a few of the coldest temperatures on record inside the South of britain and northerly France.
“This quarter’s performance is testament to our enduring popularity with regular and primary time travellers alike.” Added Petrovic.
Supporting the delivery of a superb performance over the primary three months of the year, multiple marketing initiatives both domestically and internationally have helped underpin the expansion in sales revenues.
In January, Eurostar ran its most successful consumer promotion ever with 150,000 seats available from only £59 return for travel between London and Paris, Brussels or Lille. Over the process the promotion sales exceeded even those made in the course of the ash cloud disruption in 2010, previously Eurostar’s strongest ever booking period.
Similarly, an ongoing think about international marketing campaigns has delivered impressive growth in both passenger numbers and sales revenues for travel originating outside the european. Within the first three months of the year non-EU originated sales revenues grew 10% while passenger numbers increased by 8% in comparison to the identical period in 2012.
Reflecting the increasing strategic importance of Eurostar’s website as a right away sales channel for passengers originating outside the european, total sales revenues generated via online bookings in Eurostar’s largest international market, the us, have shown particularly strong growth within the first three months of the year, up 20%.
Further demonstrating its ongoing commitment to investment around the business, Eurostar recently took the wraps off its trendy consumer facing website. This can be a central component of Eurostar’s ambitious growth plans and has transformed the shopper experience when booking online.
The new website simplifies and accelerates the booking process and because launch has reduced the typical period of time taken to book a ticket by greater than 40% from eight minutes to four and a half minutes.
The launch marks the primary stage of an important investment by Eurostar in digital technology as a way to see a raft of latest features added to the location over the arrival months.
Nicolas Petrovic continued: “The transformation of eurostar.com is a part of a much broader investment in our business designed to make certain we continue to supply our customers the absolute best end-to-end travel experience. Along with this investment in our ‘virtual shop-window’, our £700m programme of investment in our fleet of trains which encompasses the refurbishment of the present Eurostar fleet and the acquisition of 10 new trains is progressing well.”