| Growth rate has FCTG targeting cruise

THE cruise sector’s predicted growth rate over the coming years is one of the key reasons for Flight Centre Travel Group’s (FCTG) heavy investment in the industry, Global Leisure Chief Executive Officer James Kavanagh (pictured) told Cruise Weekly.

FCTG late last month acquired Cruise Club UK (CW 30 Oct), amid plans to expanding the ready-made holiday packages business model of Ignite Travel Group into the United Kingdom.

The purchase allows the company to further lean into a sector with notable forecasted growth rates over the next few years, Kavanagh said, adding he believes FCTG can be a serious player in cruise.

“There are a lot of new ships that are coming to the oceans, rivers, over the next few years.

“Lots of new products [are] coming online, and that’s going to accelerate a huge amount of demand,” he enthused.

“When we look at the cruise opportunity [and] the type of packages we bring to market, we address the entire marketplace, travellers who may not have even considered a cruise.

“If you look at some of the stats, it shows that 27% of cruisers over the past two years are new-to-cruise…the type of products that we create is [such] great value that they [say]: ‘I want to try one of those, that’s such a great deal’, so it’s actually an excellent entry point to give consideration to testing out the cruise industry.”

The new acquisition also helps FCTG in the layering of its offerings, Kavanagh added.

“Each of our brands have a different proposition – Flight Centre does a lot of close-to-home as well as fly-cruise,” he said.

“Travel Associates and Scott Dunn are at the luxury end; independent agents are across the spectrum; and My Cruises is a fly-cruise, pre-packaged business with lots of bonus value included.

“Then you’ve got Cruiseabout, which is very much a specialist business focused on cruise.

“So you can see across the portfolio we’re able to compete,” Kavanagh concluded. MS