Revenue and profit at Hostelworld both fell for the first six months of the year, however, growth in emerging markets continued for the brand in what it described as more challenging market conditions.
The online booking platform’s revenue for H1 dropped to €40.2m, from €43.9m for the same period last year.
Meanwhile, group profit after tax for the period was €1.1m lower when compared with 2015 at €7.7m.
However, Hostelworld saw strong growth in emerging markets between January and June, with brand bookings to Asian destinations jumping by 30%.
Overall, core brand booking growth in H1 was 16% - 2% higher than the same period last year – while group bookings from not-paid-for channels improved to 61% of the total (58% in H1 2015).
Total group bookings fell slightly in the first six months of this year, from 3.6m in H1 2015 to 3.5m. The company said this reflects a reduced investment in lower margin bookings.
Hostelworld said it is still on track to meet expectations for the full year.
CEO Feargal Mooney said: "The core Hostelworld brand has delivered strong growth in the first half of the year against a background of more challenging market conditions, particularly in Europe as a consequence of a number of terrorist attacks in key European destinations.
“Reflecting a key strategic focus of the Group on the Hostelworld brand and more profitable channels and to discontinue lower margin business, bookings in our supporting brands now represent just 15% of the Group total.
“Trading during the key months of July and August has been in line with our expectations, underpinned by the strength of our brand and platform.
“We will continue to manage the risks to our business posed by the impact of terrorist attacks on travel demand and patterns and by macro-economic uncertainties and currency fluctuations surrounding Brexit and, based on performance for the year to date, our expectations for the full year are unchanged,” he added.
