Most travel companies are just starting to see signs of possible recovery, but at Collette Vacations, "we stand a pretty good chance of having our best year ever," Collette CFO John Galvin said.
While it's too soon to make profit projections, Galvin said 2010 revenue should come in somewhere between 5% below and 5% above the total revenue for the record year of 2008.
Several factors are contributing to Collette's expected robust 2010 revenue performance, Galvin said.
First of all, Collette has been able to return much of its capacity to the books.
Heading into 2009, given the rocky climate, Collette reduced capacity by about 35% to 40% in order to ensure a greater number of guaranteed departures.
But the firm had set 2010 capacity in mid-2008, prior to the height of the financial crisis.
"We actually did the [2010] capacity planning really before the world ended," said Galvin. "So we find ourselves with a ridiculous capacity in comparison to what played out in '09.
"In a down market, from an inventory management standpoint, you want to be real conservative." He added, "When the numbers are really rolling and they're hot, open up everything."
Galvin said he anticipated that 50% more departures will go out in 2010 compared with 2009.
The company is currently up 41% in passengers under deposit for bookings in May through December, compared with the same time last year. (That figure does not include this year's Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany, for which Collette has sold 82% of its original block of packages.)
That's about 5% behind where Collette stood at this time in 2008, but prices have increased 7% on average compared with 2008, Galvin said.
"There's an unquestionable element of pent-up demand," said Galvin. "The economy is a little bit better. The fear factor is off the table.
"For most of our clients, unemployment is not a real issue," he said. "They have decent money, they have savings. They pulled back in a bad economic environment, but they probably weren't that badly hurt by it."
Another indicator of Collette's financial health, said Galvin, is that "we're bringing back staff."
The Providence Journal in January 2009 reported that Collette had laid off 40 staff, about 9% of its global workforce. The company conducted another, smaller wave of layoffs in March.
But Galvin said that Collette has rehired 25 to 30 employees and has 13 positions available.