Skift Take
Webjet Limited has risen as a major online travel agency in Australia and the No. 2 bedbank player globally. But stiff competition among online players down under, a slowdown in cruise sales, and low bedbank margins will keep it on its toes.
Business has been soaring for Webjet Limited, which rose from a $200 million to $2 billion company in the last eight years under the leadership of managing director John Guscic.
The Australian-listed digital travel company, which operates wholesale and consumer businesses, reported a 54 percent increase in total sales to $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2018. Earnings rose 71 per cent to $62.3 million.
Guscic told Skift in an interview there are “huge runways of growth ahead” for both sectors. The B2C arm, comprising Webjet.com.au and Online Republic, will continue to outperform the market by more than three times in fiscal year 2019, while the B2B bedbank, WebBeds, five times the market rate, according to Guscic.
Observers however said it won’t all be blue skies.
Australia’s online travel space is competitive and Webjet’s website traffic is still behind Expedia, according to year to November 2018 data by SimilarWeb, which tracks website performance.
Expedia.com.au gets on average 1,064,100 monthly visits, while Webjet.com.au, 911,300. Albeit, people visit Webjet longer at 12 minutes on average, compared with eight minutes for Expedia, while its bounce rate was lower at 17 per cent than Expedia’s 29 per cent.
Worrisomely, SimilarWeb saw desktop traffic to Webjet from Australia decreased 13 percent in January and November 2018 over the same time period in 2017. The decline was particularly pronounced in the first half of 2018, according to SimilarWeb marketing insights manager, Liron Hakim Bobrov.
A reason could be that more traffic was coming to the online
