Booking Holdings Cuts Outlook as Middle East Conflict Weighs on Travel Demand — Update

By Kelly Cloonan

Booking Holdings cut its full-year outlook as it expects the conflict in the Middle East will continue to hurt travel demand in some regions.

The online travel agency, which owns brands including Booking.com and Kayak, said Tuesday it expects the war will cause travel demand to fluctuate across routes that involve the Middle East, as well as ongoing disruptions to major transit corridors like those between Europe and Asia, through the end of June.

The company projects bookings will then recover in the second half of the year. However, it acknowledged that a more sustained conflict could pose broader inflationary pressures across the travel industry, like fluctuations in jet fuel prices and airline capacity reductions, and weigh on traveler sentiment more broadly. Those effects on the broader economy are tougher to estimate, the company said, and are not factored into its current guidance.

Chief Executive Glenn Fogel said the company is sure that travel will eventually normalize, though it's tough to know when.

"We've seen a lot of these crises before," Fogel said during a call with analysts, pointing to prior periods of disruptions like the Covid-19 pandemic. "We don't know how it's going to end, we don't know when it's going to end, but we do know it will end and I think we all can pick our own guesses at what we think it'll be."

Booking now expects revenue to grow by a high-single-digit rate this year, compared with its prior forecast of low-double-digit growth. The company now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to increase by a low- to mid-teens percentage, compared with its previous projection for mid-teens growth.

For the current quarter, Booking forecasts revenue growth of 4% to 6%, compared with analyst estimates for an increase of about 11%, according to FactSet.

The guidance comes after the Middle East conflict weighed on Booking's latest quarterly results, including pressure from elevated cancellations and a moderation in new bookings in March. However, the company said it saw continued strength in its strategic growth areas, particularly in the U.S.

For the first quarter, profit came in at $1.08 billion, or $1.36 a share, compared with $333 million, or 40 cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share were $1.14, compared with estimates of $1.08 a share according to analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue climbed 16% to $5.53 billion, compared with analyst estimates of $5.52 billion.

Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2026 18:46 ET (22:46 GMT)