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Wotif you could defy the global financial crisis?

wotif.com CEO Robbie Cooke says the global financial crisis may have helped the company by luring even more former travel agent customers online.

To say the financial year just gone was a difficult one for investors is a bit like saying Michael Jackson's death generated a few headlines.

The Australian share market was a bloodbath, with the country's top 200 companies shedding a collective 24.2 per cent over 12 months.

Overall, Australia's All Ordinaries index suffered its fifth-worst year on record.

But the news was not all bad.

One local business that defied the trend was wotif.com, which finished the year up 66.67 per cent, the third-best result of any S&P/ASX 200 company.

The result prompted a modest response from wotif.com CEO Robbie Cooke, who sounded more grateful than boastful when contacted by Fairfax Media.

"We've had a not-too-bad year all in all. I've got to say 12 months ago I wasn't so optimistic but we've come through pretty well," Mr Cooke said.

He said "in a perverse sort of way" the global financial crisis had helped wotif.com, by luring even more former travel agent customers online.

"People have been very focused on getting the best value accommodation booking and they have been coming online to find that," Mr Cooke said.

"And the other thing is I think there's been more Australians travelling at home rather than going overseas and more people taking shorter breaks - taking the long weekend."

While wary of the financial climate, the year's success was also a testament to wotif.com's determination not to be overwhelmed by doom and gloom predictions, he said.

"We've kept the balance right. We haven't reduced personnel. We've been hiring, but we've been doing it in a very controlled way," Mr Cooke said.

"We're an organisation that tends to have a culture of making sure every dollar we spend is being spent to get a return.

"That was the mantra before the global financial crisis and continued through it.

"And that sort of mentality has definitely helped us through the cycle we're in."

Launched in 2000 offering the public a chance to book vacant hotel rooms cheaply at the last minute, wotif.com soon proved popular with both bargain hunters and hotel managers looking to lift occupancy rates.

By 2004 it was ranked as the number one website in the Travel - Destinations & Accommodation category by Hitwise.

As the company grew, so did the plaudits - co-founder Graeme Wood was named Queenslander of the Year in 2008 for both his business acumen and charity interests.

But as the market for online travel expanded, so did the number of competitors.

"It's one of the curiosities of the online world that the apparent barriers are very low," Mr Cooke said.

"People can build websites, they can try and get hotel offerings and try and establish brands with relatively low barriers to entry. So it is hyper-competitive."

To help alleviate that pressure, wotif.com bought Asia Web Direct and travel.com.au, which includes the lastminute.com.au brand, in January 2008.

If investor sentiment is anything to go by, the acquisitions have been a success.

Having listed on the ASX in June 2006 at $2, wotif.com shares closed on Tuesday - the end of the 2008-09 financial year - at $4.70.

Guidance released in June put the company's full-year profit at not less than $42 million, up from $34.5 million a year ago.

Despite wotif.com's continuing growth - it now offers accommodation in 45 countries and has offices around the world - Mr Cooke said there was no chance the company would outgrow its home in Brisbane.

"Brisbane is a great place for us to operate. There's a great depth of talent in Brisbane," Mr Cooke said.

"We're obviously a big user of IT skills and there's a very strong IT community in Brisbane.

"We find it an easy place to recruit people and even if we do have to attract from other states, you never have any pushback from people having to relocate to Brisbane.

"That is of great benefit."

SOURCE: CONAL HANNA