Australia’s premier luxury travel showcase, Luxperience, has been taken over by Flight Centre Travel Group as the travel giant continues to bolster its presence in the high-end segment.
Luxperience will be positioned within Flight Centre Travel Group’s global Luxury Travel Collection which includes the Travel Associates and Scott Dunn brands. Luxperience will continue to operate as a separate business entity and will not be brand-aligned.
Owned and operated by Diversified Communications Australia, the Luxperience brand and model has operated in Australia since 2012. The objective of the show is to “support the development of meaningful relationships between travel agents and buyers with the right suppliers, products, and experiences”.
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Travel advisors participating must be pre-qualified and approved to attend based on their luxury sales history.
The last physical version of the show was held in 2019, with COVID pausing the face-to-face event in 2020 and virtual events were arranged in 2021 and 2022 – the latter of which was shelved.
James Kavanagh, Global CEO of Leisure for FCTG says the company saw the acquisition of the boutique event as an opportunity to strengthen its luxury leisure offering to suppliers, advisors and clients.
“Luxperience is very well-known in Australia and New Zealand, it has a strong reputation as a great quality annual hosted buyer event connecting high-end experiential travel advisors with elite suppliers.
“It is the only event of its kind in Australia and was therefore the right fit for the Group’s growing Luxury Travel Collection,” Kavanagh said.
“As we emerged from the pandemic and luxury travel began to rebound, we felt the addition of a bespoke, luxury B2B event like this would strengthen our portfolio and provide opportunities for business growth and diversification,” Kavanagh said.
David Longman, Managing Director of Diversified Communications Australia said Flight Centre Travel Group’s far-reaching products and partnerships would make the ideal platform to advance the Luxperience brand in the market.
“Diversified Communications is confident that FCTG is not only well placed to advance the Luxperience brand and leverage its far-reaching networks, luxury products and partnerships to ensure the sustainable growth of this incredible asset, but will also ensure that the strong brand equity that has been delivered will be continued with the same care and attention to detail that Luxperience is known for.”
To preserve the brand equity, brand reputation and to maintain consistency of relationships and connections, experienced Luxperience Event Director, Lynn Ormiston, will transfer across with the business and will continue to lead the portfolio and offering.
“Whilst it was in our plans to re-enter the brand back into the market, through discussions the opportunity arose,” Ormiston said.
“Flight Centre Travel Group will be taking over all operations, however Luxperience will continue doing business in the same manner and is committed to maintaining the high standards of quality and service that you have come to expect from us. The FCTG team is eager to build upon our strong relationships with the luxury travel community, including our relationship with you, and is looking forward to continuing to meet the needs of our premium luxury travel customers,” she added.
She told past Luxperience partners: “On behalf of Diversified Communications Australia, we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for the support and partnership you have provided us over the years. Your dedication to the luxury travel community has made our event successful, fun and above all, a memorable and professional experience.
“We believe that the brand and event is in good hands moving forward and we wish you success for your business with luxury travel bouncing back, the future is looking bright,” Ormiston added.
A boutique version of Luxperience will take place this year from 14–16 November 2023 at the International Convention Centre, Sydney.
The luxury, annual hosted buyer event was initially acquired by Diversified Communications Australia in 2017 from owner, Helen Lagos, and the company successfully ran the event in 2018 and 2019.
Last October, LATTE revealed Diversified Communications was evaluating the future format of the event.
The acquisition of Luxperience also builds on the highly-successful consumer-facing version of Travel Associates’ recent ‘The Luxury Travel Event’ held in Sydney.