Tag Archives: FCTG

FCM Travel Solutions, the Indian subsidiary of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, under its retail leisure arm ‘Flight Shop’ has launched Group Inclusive Tours (GITs) in the country. Foraying into the segment, Flight Shop has introduced new exclusive itineraries to Europe specially designed for large group travellers. The service will also offer customers the flexibility to choose dates and destinations in its group tours. Shravan Gupta, Executive Director, Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions, Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia said, “GITs are the biggest segment in the organised travel sector and are growing at 10-12 per cent every year. Travelling in a group costs lesser and is around 20-30 per cent cheaper than travelling solo to any destination. At Flight Shop, we believe that we have the required land and cruise holidays’ expertise to organise unbeatable group tour experiences for Indian travellers. While we want to experiment with the flexible tour concept, which is a pioneering concept in India, our GITs will have fixed departure dates and conventional packages too.” Offering travellers the opportunity to leverage and make the most of the services, Flight Shop has announced ‘Europe on Sale’ Campaign as an introductory offering to their customers. Flight Shop has curated over 200 Europe Group Tour itineraries with departures beginning from April 2018. Flight Shop specialists can also provide individual customization of itineraries for travelers requiring extensions on a trip, etc. Groups are also eligible for discounted deals on ‘Europe on Sale’ itineraries until December 10, 2017. Each tour group will include – Return Economy Airfare with Taxes, Visas, Insurance, Accommodation in Standard Hotels, Meals & Sightseeing as per Itinerary, Ground Transportation in Luxury Coaches and an Independent Tour …

‘Bleisure’ – the blend of business and leisure travel – is rising in popularity, with growing uptake among urban Indians, says FCM Travel Solutions’ latest findings of their global survey on Bleisure Travel. The report titled ‘Bleisure Report, India’ reveals that an increasing number of professionals in India are now extending their business trips for leisure, increasingly blurring the lines between business and leisure travel. Bleisure travel has recently become an unconventional employee perk in India with 65.5 per cent of respondents saying their employer allowed them to add leisure travel onto business trips. While Bleisure becomes a mainstream trend in the rest of the world, 27.6 per cent of Indian respondents say that their companies do not permit them to combine personal travel with their business trips, which is the highest among all countries. Speaking on the findings, Rakshit Desai, Managing Director, FCM Travel Solutions, Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia said, “Business travel has always been restricted and policy driven. While leisure travel, particularly outbound, has been niche with very low penetration. However, the survey has unlocked a remarkable trend called Bleisure. It is interesting to note that the lines between corporate and leisure travel are increasingly blurring. It would have looked very different, had we looked at this picture three or five years ago. There has been a significant change in the behaviour of corporate travel, since then.” Surveyed millennials (25-34 years old) had the highest appreciation for bleisure travel. They were also the most likely group to extend a business trip with colleagues (25 per cent), while 50 per cent of the respondents in age group of 50, would use the opportunity to travel with a family …

Flight Shop, the leisure brand of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia, in India opened its first retail store in Surat and second franchise outlet after Hyderabad. With the launch of this store, FCTG, Australia now has 17 operational Flight Shop stores across India. Spread over 1100 sq. ft., the Flight Shop outlet in Surat is based in VIP High Street, and will cater to the needs of up market urban consumers – families, business travellers, honeymoon couples and groups of travellers. Shravan Gupta, Executive Director – Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions India (the Indian arm of Flight Centre Travel Group, Australia) said, “Over the last few years, Surat has grown to become one of the fastest developing cities in the country with constantly rising travel demands of two to three trips in a year per household. As an affluent market driven by diamond and textile merchants, Surat is one of the highest contributors to the GDP amongst other emerging metros such as – Jaipur, Vishakhapatnam and Lucknow.” Flight Shop stores are spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and via a combination of owned branches and newly opened franchise outlets. FCTG, Australia plans to open 50 more Flight Shop stores across the country in the next two to three years.

Flight Shop, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of FCTG, Australia, has announced a joint-partnership with Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) and Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) to offer combined holiday packages to the discerning Indian traveller. As both tourism boards come together for the first time, the collaboration intends to strengthen mutual relationships and expand their presence in the Indian market. Commenting on the collaboration, Shravan Gupta, Executive Director – Leisure Businesses, FCM Travel Solutions India, said, “We are extremely delighted to have collaborated with Japan and Korea Tourism boards in India. As a first-of-its-kind, the partnership aligns with our commitment to offer unbeatable escapades to our customers. The popularity of these destinations amongst Indian travellers has driven us to create the finest itineraries with exciting opportunities and unforgettable lifetime experiences. As key long haul destinations, Japan and South Korea have witnessed a robust growth of 30% in Indian outbound travelers; the joint collaboration aims to double this growth over the next few years. As both destinations bet high on India, we will focus primarily on key and emerging metros.” Byungsun Lee, Director, Korea Tourism Organization, said, “We are elated to collaborate with Flight Shop and Japan Tourism Board to promote Far-East in India as we strongly believe that the Korea-Japan combination holiday is a star-offering for Indian market this summer season. Carriers in India (Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Japan Airways, All Nippon Airways) offer excellent connectivity to both the counties with bare minimum connecting times. Together, South Korea and Japan combined will offer an unmatched experience to Indian travellers, especially to families with theme parks, shopping, etc. as the focus themes.” Kenichi Takano, Executive Director, Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO) said, “Japan is a destination for …

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, …

Australia-headquartered Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has expanded its portfolio in India with the launch of FCM Incoming focusing exclusively on inbound travel. FCM Incoming will focus on leisure travel experiences in and around the Indian subcontinent, including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. Prashant Narayan has been appointed as Country Head, FCM Incoming. He will be responsible for brand expansion with a specific focus on building inbound holiday solutions for individual and group requirements of leisure travellers. FCM Travel Solutions and Flight Shop MD India Rakshit Desai said, “FCM Incoming has been launched to delve into the potential of the Indian subcontinent as an inbound market, and showcase the regions rich offerings to a global audience.” Narayan joins FCM Incoming with an experience of over 22 years within the service industry. Prior to this, he was associated with Thomas Cook as COO-inbound business and was also a member-executive committee of Thomas Cook (I) Ltd.