Online travel agency, Expedia group has announced that their revenue for 1st quarter of 2020 has been decreased by 15% compare to the same period in 2019.This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected the company’s hotel and air travel bookings around the globe.
According to the company, the 1st quarter revenue was decreased by 15% from $2.6 billion in Q1 2019 to $2.2 billion. At the same time, the gross bookings for the quarter ending March 31 were down 39% year-over-year from $29.4 billion to $17.9 million. Moreover, Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was a loss of $76 million in the 1st quarter of 2020.
Expedia group has taken several measures to safeguard the business. They have decreased the marketing budget by 20% for the 1st quarter of 2020. Earlier in February 2020 the company laid off 12% of their employees. Moreover, last month the company also announced new capital budget of $3.2 billion. Among them $2 billion coming as debt financing and $1.2 billion as an equity investment by Apollo Global Management and Silver Lake Partners.
According to the Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern “the COVID-19 has created more urgency and focus to streamline operations and has created an opportunity to work through “what had been thorny technology issues.”
