FCM Travel acquires business interests of Travel Tours Group

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian arm of the Australia–headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), announced an agreement to acquire the business interests of South India’s premier travel company, the Rs 750 crore Travel Tours Group (TTG), in a cash and stock deal. Led by Shravan Gupta, TTG is a four decade old company offering a gamut of travel services including leisure, corporate travel, MICE, Visa, inbound, wholesale and FOREX. Commenting on the acquisition, Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions said “We are thrilled to welcome TTG into the Flight Centre family.  This partnership propels us into an Rs 3,000 crore enterprise and one of the top three players in all the core travel segments we operate in. India is poised to become one of the world’s major travel markets and this partnership will enable us to achieve our goal of being the largest customer focussed travel player in the country.” Shravan Gupta, Managing Director, Travel Tours Group, who joins the board of FCM and assumes leadership of the leisure business said, “We are very excited to be a part of the Flight Centre group and confident that our combined strength will help achieve our ambitious growth plans at a much faster pace. I’m personally looking forward to leading the leisure business, sharing insights and product knowledge, as well as gaining from the global best practices of the Flight Centre group”. The combined strength will give FCM India a national distribution network and strong leadership across businesses and functions. Upon successful acquisition, FCM India will employ over 1,600 travel professionals across 44 locations in 16 cities. The partnership will bring on-board TTG’s brands, that include – Travel Tours, Travel Air, Travel Air representations, Splendour Holidays, Go Avenues and www.mustseeindia.com.The business will start realising strategic benefits within a 12 month period. Based on FY16 results for Flight Centre, the combined India business would have surpassed South Africa to become Flight Centre’s sixth largest country by sales behind Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. Travel Tour Group’s acquisition is expected to further strengthen Flight Centre’s India footprint