TRAVELtech: Interview with Travel.com.au CEO Adam Johnson

TRAVELtech continued. Interview on stage with Adam Johnson the CEO of Travel.com.au the operator of both Travel.com.au and now the sole owner of Lastminute.com.au.

Couple of interesting metrics and number from the interview:

• The are now profitable (measured on monthly numbers). Recent full year financial results showed a loss but now profitable on a monthly basis;
• Expecting 30-35% topline and bottom line growth for FY08 - TTV of $130-140mm;
• Marketing spend will stay around 2.5% of TTV. All of this online, 80% of it likely to be on SEM;
  
• 15,000 hotel bookings per month; and
  
• 500k subscribers to newsletters on both brands.

He is very conscious that the area they need to work on is less around brand and traffic but conversion. Would not share numbers but admitted to be behind competitors on converting traffic into booking. As he says "need to focus on utility" around pricing, functionality and product.

Travel.com.au are celebrating their 10th year this year. They were one of the first in the world to do international flights online. Not that this is much to brag about. As Adam joked, "In the early days we had 100% of the online international fares market. All two of the bookings made were made with us."