Flight Centre Will Eliminate Some Leisure Brands
Skift Take
Australia’s largest travel agent, Flight Centre, is not resting on its laurels after posting record revenues and strong profits. To ensure it stays on track, the group is shedding underperforming businesses, and dumping some of its leisure brands. It is also chasing growth in emerging business lines ranging from destination management to foreign exchange services.
Australian-headquartered global travel giant Flight Centre will rebrand almost a quarter of its retail outlets in its home market as it rationalizes its leisure offerings.
The well-known Cruiseabout and Escape Travel brands will disappear and be absorbed into the Flight Centre and Travel Associates networks as part of its Australian Super Networks Strategy.
“This is about moving from what was six leisure brands to three – to achieve scale and enable us to achieve marketshare,” Chief Operating Officer Melanie Waters-Ryan said during an analysts’ briefing. “Shops will be rebranded and consultants will be redeployed … so that we can retain that specialization in things like tailor-made holidays and cruises.” She said there will be no job losses.
The plan segments the leisure market into a mass market (Flight Centre), a youth segment (Student Flights) and a premium offering (Travel Associates).
A similar brand purge will be conducted on a smaller scale in New Zealand.
Flight Centre, which exceeded $7.82 billion (A$10 billion) in
