Johannesburg - No low-cost airlines, no online booking, smoking allowed on aeroplanes, handwritten paper tickets, travellers’ cheques and the rand at R3.50 to the dollar – it was, to paraphrase The Black Eyed Peas, so 1994.
Fast-forward 21 years and low-cost airlines, e-tickets, online booking and bank cards or travel wallets are the norm; smoking has been banned on planes and in airports; and the rand is, unfortunately, over R13 to the dollar.
And through it all, Flight Centre Travel Group has been around.
Launched in South Africa in 1994, the travel agency group turns 21 this month, having been at the forefront of an industry which has experienced phenomenal change – and which continues to experience turbulence, thanks to the weakening rand, controversial visa regime and economic uncertainty.
But Andrew Stark, managing director of Flight Centre Travel Group, remains upbeat.
“Revenue airline sales may be down by 14 percent on prior year but ticket numbers domestically, regionally and internationally are all up 14 percent. So, there has never been a better time to travel for South Africans,” he says, pointing out that air tickets are considerably cheaper, for both leisure and corporate travellers, compared with last year.
“Yes, the strained economy has affected overall airline sales for Flight Centre Travel Group but packaged holidays are enjoying strong growth, which is very pleasing as this benefits South African travel customers for now.”
He says because of aggressive marketing and innovation, Flight Centre has seen growth in packaged, all-inclusive holidays to destinations like Mauritius and Thailand, and also domestically.
Flight Centre – which has launched great deals to celebrate its birthday, including free travel, accommodation and meals for children accompanying parents on holiday to Mauritius – is on a drive to “transform our image from a traditional travel agent to a world-class travel retailer through our new customer-centric stores and our unique product offering in the marketplace, being the lowest airfare guaranteed, and Red Label Holidays”.
Says Stark: “We saw a trend change coming 15 months ago with a forecast of a weakening rand. We saw a gap to introduce our own, unique product that would appeal to the South African travelling public.
“We conceptualised a brand called Red Label Holidays, which is all about being unique to Flight Centre and offering value add to travellers.
“Red Label Holidays comprises three sub-brands, namely All In (hand-picked all-inclusive hotels and resorts); Family Fiesta (hand-picked family hotels and resorts); and Just for 2 (hand-picked couples’ hotels and resorts). We also hand-picked the three destinations that we believed the travelling public would find appealing down the line, which are Mauritius, Thailand and South Africa.
“The success of this exclusive product, coupled with added value, has helped make travel for South Africans all that more appealing and affordable. With the success of Red Label Holidays, showing growth of 500 percent since its introduction, Flight Centre Travel Group’s strategy for the next five years will be to continue to develop unique products for customers to ensure that travel is always affordable for the South African consumer.”
l www.flightcentre.co.za
Saturday Star