Eurostar Reports Increase in Leisure Sales

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Eurostar, the high-speed link between the UK and with the rest of Europe, has announced sales results for the first six months of 2009. Despite the recession, Eurostar reported a 4 percent rise in leisure sales against the same period in 2008, following a surge in inbound travel to the UK and a drive to encourage UK travelers to take full advantage of the increased availability of the lead-in $96 return fare.

Eurostar has also achieved record punctuality since the Channel Tunnel fully reopened on February 23, with 95.7 percent of trains arriving on time.

Ticket sales between January and June 2009 totaled $562 million—a decrease of 7 percent against the same period in 2008. Traveler numbers reached 4.34 million, 6 percent below the 4.63 million who traveled during the same period in 2008 but still 11 percent up on 2007, before Eurostar’s move from Waterloo to St. Pancras International and High Speed 1. Since 2007, Eurostar has seen increasing demand from the UK regions, with about a third of UK sales generated from outside London.