Online travel agency Wotif has revealed its plans for a fresh expansion for sales of all types of travel products throughout Asia, lessening its dependence on the domestic Australian hotel market.
Yesterday the company went live with a new digital platform that can package domestic and international flights, hotels, transfers, and other products for Australian outbound holidaygoers, says TTG Asia.
Earlier, on October 20, Wotif told shareholders that it expects a 30% spike in the average value of flight transactions in this half of 2013, year-on-year, according to the Courier Mail.
Asia first
Wotif, the top travel site in Australia by traffic volume, plans a huge intra-Asian marketing push for its Asia Web Direct and LateStays.com lodging brands, starting in November.
These moves come a year after the Brisbane-based company named Scott Blume as its chief executive. Blume touts his Asia experience, such as many years at regional travel agent Zuji, his recent term as non-executive director of the Singapore Tourism Board, and past work at Carlson Wagonlit and Flight Centre.
Blume aims to use his Asia expertise to diversify Wotif's customer base, says the Sydney Morning Herald.
A whiff of flatlining financials
The 13-year-old startup's bread and butter has been selling hotel rooms to Australians. It has 3.4 million subscribers, most of whom are in Australia and New Zealand. It turns over more than $1 billion in bookings a year for stays in Australia and New Zealand.
Yet revenue growth has plateaued, as a strong Australian dollar has flatlined domestic hotel booking.
In August the company reported annual net profit after tax of $51 million(AUS), which was back down to the same level as in 2010, despite economic improvement nationwide. Yet, in perspective, that's still a profit margin of roughly 50%.
In January 2014, Wotif will hike its commissions to hoteliers a hundred basis points to 12% of transaction value, says the Sydney Morning Herald. In early 2014, it also aims to have a new partner to provide deals for the top 20 most popular global destinations for Australian travellers, reports Travel Weekly.
The company is looking to expand into markets where there is no major domestic online travel company leader. Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore are top targets. A few years ago, the company bought AsiaWebDirect a Thailand-based OTA -- though a English-language site -- and a beachhead in intra-Asian sales.
In September Wotif acknowledged a new Asian accommodation content-sharing deal in which Australian and New Zealand hotel content will be included on the Japanese giant OTA Rakuten, and vice versa.
The prospects of Asian expansion have apparently made the Wotif crew so excited that they're doing the Harlem Shake in the headquarters: