Carlson Wagonlit Travel has reported a record performance for the 2011 financial year, with Asia Pacific spearheading its growth.
Australia performed strongly for the corporate travel specialist, with traffic growth of 13% and a 7% rise in transactions. New Zealand saw a smaller but positive increase of 1% in traffic and 3% in transactions which managing director Australia and New Zealand Peter Brady described as a “fantastic” result given some of 2011’s challenges.
“CWT Australia and New Zealand’s combined success has continued to contribute to the strong results shown in Asia Pacific,” he said.
Asia Pacific saw growth in transactions of 18.5% year on year, well above the global growth figure of 7.2%. Meanwhile, worldwide sales volume grew by 15.2% to US$28 billion (AU$25.9 billion).
CWT president and chief executive Douglas Anderson said growth came amid an “unpredictable economic environment.”
“Global corporations are more optimistic about their travel spend going forward and certain areas of the world, such as Asia and Latin America, continue to show strong growth,” he said.
The year saw CWT retain 96% of its existing client base, win US$2.2 billion (AU$2 billion) in new business and acquire three companies – Kaleva Travel, Centenial Group and Net Tours. Growth was also experienced by subsidiaries CWT Solutions Group, CWT Energy Services and CWT Meetings and Events.
