[Apha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] Leisure platforms Yanolja and GC Company's performance in the first half of this year continued to grow in line with a surge in overseas travel. Profitability was mixed.

The two companies expect to see better performance in the third quarter, which fully reflects the effects of the end-of-the-year and peak travel seasons.

According to the industry on the 12th, the total sales of Yanolja and GC Company in the first half of this year was 479 billion won, up 20.1% from 398.8 billion won a year earlier.

Yanolja rose 27.7% year-on-year to 322 billion won, while GC Company rose 7% to 157 billion won.

The growth is attributed to an explosive increase in demand for overseas travel as international restrictions on COVID-19 have been lifted from around the world.

"In order to preemptively respond to the soaring demand for overseas travel, our global business grew evenly while launching overseas and aviation services," Yanolja said. "In particular, the amount of overseas accommodation transactions on the Yanolja platform increased by more than 900% in the second quarter."

"We led the improvement in overall performance as new sales, including overseas travel, increased 5.1 times," GC Company said. "In particular, the outbound entry strategy, which focused on short and mid-range destinations, was effective." In the case of Japan, a popular travel destination, transactions in the May-June period soared to 930 times higher than the previous year, the beginning of the business.

Profitability was mixed. Yanolja lost 28.5 billion won in the first half of the year, compared to 10.3 billion won last year. The company analyzed that it was the result of aggressive research and development (R&D) and brand marketing investment to promote future growth.

According to a semiannual report by Yanolja, the company's R&D cost in the first half of the year was 44 billion won, accounting for 13.6% of its sales. The annual R&D cost is nearly 45.8 billion won last year.

Advertising promotion costs were 21.8 billion won, up 63.9% from the previous year. In particular, Interpark Triple's branding had a great impact.

On the other hand, GC Company's operating profit rose 20% year-on-year to 18 billion won. It has been in the black for consecutive years since 2019. While increasing platform usability and maximizing advertising and marketing effects.

Yanolja and GC Company are expecting positive performance in the second half of the year, which fully reflects their overseas travel performance.

In particular, GC Company aims to achieve annual operating profit of 50 billion won this year.

 

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