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TravelMole Interview: Vic Darvey, Online Travel Corporation
Online Travel Corporation sales director Vic Darvey says that the company has seen bookings pick up since the end of major hostilities in Iraq and the demise of the SARS virus.
Mr Darvey claimed: “Pent up demand has been released which is great. People are also waiting longer before they book their holiday, put the two together and it’s fantastic.”
He told TravelMole that importantly prices are holding up too. “On average prices are up by about £50 or £60 year because there’s so much demand and because there’s not excess capacity. So there’s not only more booking, but it’s booking at a higher level.”
Earlier this month OTC revealed that demand had been severely depressed during its second quarter. For the six months to April 2003 OTC saw pre-tax and pre-interest losses grow to £2.5million compared with £795,000 a year earlier.Sales rose from £30.1million to £41.3million.
Meanwhile OTC owned package holiday website Bargainholidays.com has added content and functionality to make its package holidays easier to book. Extra search options now include accommodation type and tour operator.
In addition a new Flight Booking service has been introduced allowing users to compare scheduled and charter flight prices. The changes also allows users to identify its cheapest flights for a specific destination by capturing the data from previous user searches.
The changes to the site went live two weeks ago. Mr Darvey commented: “It’s still too early for significant feedback but as far as we’re concerned internally it’s much better than previously.”
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