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On the Venezuelan 'Lost
World' tour
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Division formed last year
- 16% of sales
Explore Worldwide - market
leader in worldwide adventure travel; small groups with
own tour leader (100 countries); scheduled flights;
walking and trekking, wilderness, wildlife and cultural
tours
Regal Holidays - leader
in scuba diving holidays to the Red Sea (Egypt), Maldives,
Caribbean and Far East; charter flights to Red Sea,
scheduled flights to other destinations; 'learn to dive'and
'liveaboard' holidays a speciality
Sell direct and through
specialist UK and overseas agents
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Traditional clothing in
Gujarat
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Even before September 11th we
had experienced more than the usual level of regionalised
disruption which is part and parcel of the operation of the
Explore business. The most notable of these events were in
Nepal and Sri Lanka both of which are now back to normal.
As noted in the Chairman's statement, the disruption
and loss of September bookings immediately following the terrorist
attacks resulted in an estimated turnover loss of £300,000
and £130,000 in operating profits. Adventure sales eventually
came in 12% ahead of the pro-forma 2000 figure at £31.0m.
The net margin was reduced slightly due to reorganisation
and development costs most of which had been anticipated at
the time of acquisition.
A great strength of Explore Worldwide's
business is its flexible operational cost base. Only scheduled
aircraft seats are used, with no guarantees given or block
commitments taken. At the destination end, we hire in transport
and ancillary equipment on a needs basis and do not make upfront
commitments for hotel accommodation. Tour load factors are
nevertheless important for profitability because of the fixed
costs involved in providing transport and our tour leader.
We do not run unprofitable tours and have overall load factor
targets which, in normal circumstances, we have been able
to achieve consistently each year. We were successful in this
aim in 2001 except in September when, for understandable reasons,
there was a rush of late cancellations hitting load factors
during that period.
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