Travel Counsellors, which specialises in managing travel for SMEs, is reporting strong recovery and growth in its corporate business.
The group, which has both leisure and corporate business, gave a trading update as it announced record financial performance for the year to October 2022.
Total Transaction Value for the whole group was up 312% on last year to £719.4m, significantly ahead of pre-pandemic levels of £631m.
Revenue increased by 411% year-on-year to £347.8m, while EBITDA climbed to £20.1m, compared to a loss of £6.8m in 2021.
Kieran Hartwell, Managing Director at Travel Counsellors, said: “Our corporate business is 100% focused on the SME sector and continues to see strong recovery and growth with TTV set to exceed £220m in 2023.
“We are trading around 30% up on the same point in 2019, largely driven via strong client retention and a drive towards new client acquisition.
“The SME sector drives the UK economy and greatly values personal service delivery and concierge like travel management support to help power their businesses as they themselves seek to expand, grow and scale on an international basis.”
He also reported a “significant uptick” in corporate Travel Counsellor recruitment, up 55% on 2019, with travel entrepreneurs leveraging its platform and community to “power their business, many of which choose to operate in ‘teams’ to support their SME clients as they grow”.
He added: “Our focus for the next few years is on greatly enhancing the user experience on our platform for both corporate travel entrepreneurs and SME clients and investing in business development to capitalise on the £2bn+ SME corporate travel sector in the UK.”
