Holidays and nights out reviews platform TripAdvisor is hopeful that the worst of the pandemic-driven travel disruption is now behind it and it can get back on a strong growth footing despite missing fourth quarter forecasts and falling into the red.
‘Coming out of 2021, we expect significant improvement in the travel market in 2022 due to the expected easing of the pandemic and the significant pent-up demand for travel, especially in the second half of the year,’ said TripAdvisor’s chief financial officer Ernst Teunissen.
DAMAGE DONE
TripAdvisor, which has become an instantly recognisable online brand for millions of Brits, reported losses of $0.01 per share on revenue of $241 million for the three months to 31 December 2021 overnight, its final quarter of the fiscal 2021 year.
Analysts had anticipated $249.23 million revenue and earnings of $0.07 per share.
TripAdvisor’s numbers for the 2021 year were a loss of $0.31 per share on $902 million.
The company’s Hotels, Media and Platform revenue for the quarter was $133 million, an 80% rise year-on-year, although that compares to a dismal Q4 2020 when most of the world was in the teeth of the Covid shutdown. Its’ Experiences & Dining revenue came in at $98 million, up from $36 million during the same period the previous year.
TripAdvisor is particularly hopeful of strong growth recovery from this part of the business with restaurants, bars, clubs and other entertainment hubs facing little or no restrictions now in many parts of the world.
UNDERLYING RECOVERY
During Q4 2021, the company’s average monthly unique users on TripAdvisor-branded websites were approximately 73% of 2019, giving a better steer as to where the company is in its post-pandemic recovery.
The company said the improvement during 2021 was driven by vaccine progress, various government restrictions being gradually lifted, albeit unevenly, and consumer travel demand’s improving recovery.
TripAdvisor’s stock has lost around half its value over the past year, and investors were in no mood to take positive commentary at face value, the shares falling nearly 7% to $29.23 in after-hours trading.
Consensus 2022 estimates are pitched at $1.26 per share of earnings on $1.37 billion of revenue, according to Koyfin data.
