The nation’s two listed travel agencies, Lion Travel Service Co Ltd (雄獅旅行社) and Phoenix Tours International Inc (鳳凰國際旅行社), may see rising sales and earnings this year, thanks to the depreciation of the euro and booming international tourism, analysts said.
“More long holidays and the euro’s depreciation may trigger travel demand, as outbound tourists to Europe showed a 16 percent growth in the first quarter from the same period last year,” JPMorgan Securities (Taiwan) Ltd said in a report on Friday, citing Phoenix Tours’ statistics.
More direct flights by Turkish Airlines, which started in March, could also help Phoenix Tours see sales growth and profit recovery this year, the brokerage said.
Phoenix Tours’s first quarter income was NT$30.12 million (US$975,670), or NT$0.51 per share, 86.85 percent more than the same period last year.
The company’s net profit last year dropped 32.07 percent year-on-year to NT$125.5 million, or NT$2.07 per share.
Its European offerings, which accounted for 36 percent of Phoenix Tours’ sales last year, may rebound this year on the euro’s weakness. The company expects a better quarter this quarter, citing higher revenue contribution from cruise and European products.
Lion Travel Service Co Ltd (雄獅旅行社), the largest outbound travel service company in the nation, may see more growth momentum from China this year compared with Phoenix, analysts said.
Lion Travel has set up a Shanghai subsidiary and plans another in Xiamen to focus on the southern China market. It is allowed to distribute domestic flight tickets and provide travel services to Shanghai residents traveling to Hong Kong or Macau, according to JPMorgan.
Although the second quarter was once a weak period for tour agencies, the depreciation of the Japanese yen and the euro will still boost demand for Lion Travel’s North Asia and long-distance lines, SinoPac Securities Investment Service Co (永豐投顧) said.
SinoPac Securities forecast Lion Travel to post a net income of NT$150 million this quarter, up 12 percent from last quarter and 40 percent higher than a year earlier.
Net income for next quarter is set to reach NT$177 million due to the positive impact of seasonal demand, SinoPac said in a note on Thursday.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
RSS