FLIGHT Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has identified a gap in the market for a brand which specialises in the fly-cruise segment, with Chief Executive Officer Leisure James Kavanagh telling travelBulletin there is no travel agency which has a footprint servicing the sector through the combination of traditional retail, a call centre, and online bookings.
FCTG’s announcement this week of the revival of its Cruiseabout brand will allow the company to back its new approach with a strong wholesale division, differing it from the Group’s current cruise sale strategy.
The company wants to “own the market”, Kavanagh said, as cruise tourism continues to rebound faster than international arrivals.
“It’s understanding the product that our customers are looking to buy,” he explained.
“What’s important for us to make sure is that we’ve got the right experts that are well versed on the ships, and are designing the right itineraries.
“We’re partnering with our suppliers to be able to design exclusive products which will be quite unique.”
The revised Cruiseabout offering will also involve ensuring the brand is providing the right offering to its customers in the right location, Kavanagh said.
This will include matching the product to its customers’ needs, using its cruise partners’ data to do so.
“We’ll also look to what are the key postcodes and areas – there’ll be some suburbs, supermarkets, strip malls, malls – where we’ll find most of our customers are located,” he explained.
“The plan is to actually figure out what locations do we want to be in as a result of that.
“We are mining a lot of data to understand where are the key postcodes where customers are actually booking from across the country, and then we make choices around that.”
