Travel firm prepares for royal wedding hotel rush

The wedding of Britain’s Prince William to Kate Middleton is expected to boost Britain’s economy by hundreds of millions of pounds and is seen as giving a major boost to travel and tour companies.

Recently, travel group Thomas Cook also said it expected a pick-up in bookings for holidays during the week of the royal wedding, set to take place at Westminster Abbey on April 29.

Holidaybreak also expects the York-based hotel division, which accounted for 29 per cent of its 2010 revenue, to benefit from theatre deals related to new shows like Wizard of Oz and Shrek this year.

Overall, sales intake fell 3 per cent in the five months ended February 12, due to bad weather in December and the recent civil unrest in Egypt.

“We have cancelled all February departures to the affected areas of Egypt with some customers re-booking to alternative destinations,” the Northwich-based company said.

The German units of Thomas Cook and TUI Travel also recently cancelled holidays from Germany to Egypt and Tunisia until the end of February, in the face of unrest that swept the countries’ long-time leaders from power.

Holidaybreak, which offers short breaks within the UK and Europe, also forecast full-year performance in line with its own expectations for the financial year ending September 30.

Analysts, on average, expect a full-year pretax profit of £33.0m on revenue of £471.6m, according to a poll.

Holidaybreak’s shares, which have gained about 22 per cent since the company in November forecast growth in its education unit in 2011, closed unchange d at 328p last night.

Meanwhile, Europe’s biggest tour operator TUI Travel has entered into a strategic venture with Australian firm Intrepid Travel to create a global leader in adventure holidays.

TUI said the deal will significantly enhance its position in the fast growing adventure travel sector and will save about £10m a year in costs.

TUI will own 60 per cent of the venture and Intrepid will own the rest.

“The transaction is expected to drive cost synergies, primarily arising from increased economies of scale,” the company said.