For the second quarter of 2020, Tripadvisor is reporting revenue of $59 million, a $153 million net loss and a $74 million adjusted EBITDA loss – but in a letter to shareholders, co-founder and CEO Steve Kaufer says that is still “better than our previously disclosed expectations.”
The revenue figure is 86% less than the same period last year.
“Our second-quarter results reflect the historic impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on our business and on the travel industry. Significant year-over-year impacts persist and near-term visibility remains low. That said, we are encouraged that consumer travel demand trends have been gradually improving since the April nadir,” Kaufer says.
“Travel’s recovery path will likely be uneven by geography and by sector as businesses and borders reopen and consumer confidence in their own health and safety is restored. Accordingly, we are leveraging our platform’s core strengths to help customers and redoubling strategic efforts to emerge in a strong position on the other side of this pandemic.”
Tripadvisor says during April, May and June, monthly unique users on its sites were approximately 33%, 45% and 60%, respectively, of last year’s comparable periods. Traffic continues to improve and the company estimates July’s figure will be about 67% of last year’s.
The company says revenue is also improving – from a low of about 10% of last year’s comparable period in April and May to 20% in June and an estimation of 30% for July.
“COVID’s impacts continue to vary market-by-market and week-to-week, so recovery from here will likely continue to be nonlinear. We remain cautious, but recent improvements are encouraging nonetheless,” the letter states.
For the remainder of the year and into 2021, Tripadvisor says it has several priorities, including accelerating its “One Tripadvisor” consumer-focused strategy. The effort includes a redesigned home page and content to “deliver a more personalized and contextually relevant discovery, planning and shopping experience.” A redesigned mobile app is in the works for later this year.
Following the launch of a personalized travel service known as Reco in June, Tripadvisor says it will continue to develop consumer subscription and other direct-to-consumer paid offerings.
The company says it will also launch a new solution focused on hotel customers in the coming months and is “focused on building the product suite and deepening hotelier partner engagement on our platform.”
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