Flight Centre Travel Group Impressive Acquisition Trail

FCM’s parent company, Flight Centre Travel Group has announced an impressive acquisition trail of six travel businesses around the globe in under 6 weeks.

The acquisitions strengthen Flight Centre’s corporate and leisure presence significantly in markets such as Canada and New Zealand; as well as the fast-growing mobile agency sector in Australia. The agreements also boost Flight Centre’s destination management offering in the Americas and mark the company’s entry into the hotel management sector. Since July 7th 2017, Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), already one of the world’s largest travel companies with an annual turnover of AUD$19 billion, has secured separate agreements to acquire:

• Les Voyages Laurier du Vallon in Canada, a Quebec-city based corporate, luxury leisure travel and MICE company with a turnover of Can$9.4M, of which around 40 per cent is generated by its business travel services
• Executive Travel Group, New Zealand’s largest independent corporate travel management company, with a total transaction value (TTV) of NZ$60M last year
• Travel Managers Group, a predominantly leisure-focused group in New Zealand that provides systems and support services to a network of more than 180 individual brokers; and also operates a franchise network of 12 TravelSmart shops and 10 non-branded stores
• Olympus Tours, a leading Mexico-based destination management company (DMC) with operations across Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica. Founded in 1994, Olympus is now one of the largest ground handling businesses in Mexico with a turnover of US$25M in 2016
• Bespoke Hospitality Management, an emerging Thailand-based regional operator of 14 existing design and lifestyle leisure hotels in Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, plus an additional 19 properties in development
• Travel Partners, a Sydney-based business with a strong network of independently contracted home-based consultants or mobile travel agents generating TTV of around AUD$70M in its 2017 financial year

Marcus Eklund, Global General Manager, FCM Travel Solutions commented: “This is an exciting time for our parent company Flight Centre in terms of expansion and we are proud to be the corporate flagship division of such a forward-thinking progressive global travel company. This is part of our overall strategy to provide unique services and experience to the traveler. Each acquisition is of significant strategic importance, whether that’s fast-tracking corporate and leisure business growth in certain markets, expanding Flight Centre’s in-destination network, or adding new distribution channels.”