Summer travelers sustained online travel agent Priceline’s second quarter income, which grew 12% year on year, according to a report.
While violent attacks on France and Belgium dampened travel to those countries, vacationers are exploring alternatives like Southern Spain and Portugal, the firm said.
Revenues rose to $2.56 billion in the current quarter, netting $580.6 million in profits, which is an 11% jump compared to the same period last year.
Further, the Group said it expects lower returns from business coming in from its online advertising initiatives, most of which is channeled through Alphabet’ Google search engine. It is currently exploring pouring more marketing dollars into Facebook’s targeted ads.
“We found that a number of things we’ve done on Facebook works well. We would like to spend more money on Facebook going forward,” interim chief executive Jeffrey Boyd told reporters.
However, the company said it does not want to commoditize hotel rooms by perpetuating discount deals.
“At some point, it actually might not be a great idea to push the market and push consumers to expect only discounted prices,” he noted.
