The results follow the group’s announcement on Wednesday that it is to acquire the issued share capital of rival OTA Sunshine.co.uk for a total consideration of £12 million.

Group revenue increased 7.3% to £38.1 million with a later booking pattern for peak departures.

Group profit before tax was up 33.8% to £9.9 million, with adjusted group profit before tax up 28.4% to £12.2 million. Net debt at half year reduced to £2.3 million.

Meanwhile, daily unique visitors increased by 9.5% to 27.5 million during the period.

Simon Cooper, chief executive of On the Beach Group: “On the Beach has delivered a solid performance in H1, with booking growth strengthening towards the end of the period and continuing into H2.

“In the group’s AGM Trading Update, management outlined the view that H2 performance would be stronger than H1, with more favourable year-on-year comparators in H2 and because H1 was impacted by the later timing of the low cost carriers’ seat release, as well as key hotel partners in the Western Mediterranean holding back capacity to sell in the late market.

“All of these assumptions played out in the first half and have continued in H2.

“Given these market dynamics, we took a proactive decision to balance volume and revenue growth.

“This position remains under constant review to ensure that business performance is optimised.

“Strategically, the changing market dynamics are presenting a number of exciting opportunities for On the Beach to leverage its scale and technological capability and we are delighted to have recently completed the acquisition of Sunshine.co.uk to further strengthen our market leading position.

“Given the resilient and flexible nature of our business model the board remains confident in delivering a full-year result in line with management’s expectations.”