Flight Centre Travel Group will broaden the scope of the Luxury Travel Collection, within and beyond the travel sphere as part of the growth strategy for the division.
Danielle Galloway, Global Managing Director, FCTG Independent and Luxury Travel Brands, said the recent addition of Luxperience was one of a number of new acquistions for the luxury division.
Explaining the rationale behind that decision, Galloway said the Group was conscious of the groundswell in the return of events, and the realisation the Luxury Travel Collection was void of a strong, luxury B2B event.
“In our business, connection is absolutely key to success,” Galloway said.
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“We’ve always been about connections and nurturing valuable relationships to support our clients, but being hyper-connected in the luxury world is key to our success and that has put us in good stead to travel quickly on our growth pathway for the Luxury Travel Collection – suppliers, partners, other luxury groups, etc are critically important to us.”
“Luxperience is such a great event for the Australia/New Zealand luxury market. With this event, we are able to close some gaps but also open new and different opportunities. It’s another important pathway to enable us to grow.”
“We want to be the largest boutique luxury travel business, and that’s what’s really key to us. That’s in our DNA, it’s how we began, and the success of the company has been around the boutiqueness of our style.”
“Being the largest globally is an aspiration, and we believe we can achieve that, while remaining boutique in style and substance and not necessarily just growing brands. We also believe partnerships will be important, as well as acquisitions.”
Galloway explained that the Luxury Travel Collection’s primary objective is “to win the luxury consumer”.
“The ecosystem we have developed around luxury, as you’ll see in the coming months and years, is how we are building out our portfolio, centred around the luxury consumer.”
The Luxury Travel Collection revolves around three key components: its wholly-owned branded businesses (namely Travel Associates and Scott Dunn); partnerships and acquisitions.
She said FCTG is focused on company acquisitions for the Luxury Travel Collection within the travel scape and “not to say we wouldn’t look outside, but growing globally.”
“We continue to want to grow as a global portfolio and looking at key luxury leaders in important markets, and other players that we will acquire, similar to Scott Dunn, which gave us really great positioning in several markets where we didn’t have a luxury brand at that point in time.”
“You’ll see some interesting things start to come out as we move to partner with other luxury brands, not necessarily in travel,” Galloway revealed to LATTE.
“The luxury consumer’s portfolio is not just about travel, and there will be some significant partnerships, and acquisitions in our future.”