From exploring new channels such as mobile travel agents to acquiring new properties and both digital and physical store expansion, membership organisation RAC Travel WA has plenty of growth on the horizon.
In an exclusive interview with Travel Daily, RAC Travel WA’s Executive Manager of Travel and Tourism Michael Leary shared the business’ plans for the future.
“Our strategy is focused on continuing to build on our proud history by providing even more experiences for our 1.3 million members and the wider WA community at home and abroad,” he said.
With four stores in its network currently, the organisation is looking to develop a home-based agent network to help reach customers in regional areas who live further away from its stores.
Leary has much admiration for many home-based agents who are thriving post-COVID and will soon be on the lookout for those who are well-connected with their local community to join the business.
“I look at a lot of the small agents that survived through COVID – they did a fantastic job and probably mortgaged their houses again off the back of their businesses. They tend to be more entrepreneurial, very business-minded people,” he said.
“We think we can offer them the opportunity where they can do all the selling, and we’ll do all the hack work for them in the head office – we’ll do all the payments and the accounting work for them.
Bolstering the growth of a home-based agency arm will be the addition of new physical stores and positioning them in more aspirational shopping centres to attract a better footprint and provide more convenience for its members.
“Shopping centres are no longer just shopping centres – they’re entertainment precincts,” Leary observed. “They’re drawing people in through ice skating rinks, kids clubs, cinemas and dining.”
“We are looking to reconfigure our footprint into those kinds of locations, because we think they’ve got longevity and we can see that’s what people are drawn to.”
Pre-COVID, RAC WA had nine physical stores, which then decreased to four, but now it is time to ramp up its network, which will also include the launch of a digital offering, said Leary.
At the moment, the organisation sells largely to retirees, but a key part of its longer-term strategy centres around the lifetime of the customer, such as attracting a younger, digitally-savvy demographic.
Set to launch within the next eight months, a new website will allow customers to book their own holidays online or make appointments with a team member in a store. The online presence will also feature informative, inspiring travel content to connect and engage customers.
Meanwhile, RAC WA is also on a search for new properties in iconic sites, adding to its current portfolio of nine resorts and caravan parks in the state, including recent investments in RAC Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort, the expansion of the RAC Esperance Holiday Park, and the current redevelopment of the RAC Ningaloo Reef Resort.
“We look at good locations where there is enough expansion opportunity within the site, and then we deploy some capital into that, and then we run it,” Leary explained, adding that the organisation is also currently building a new hotel in Coral Bay.
“Our strategy is to always try to buy a brownfield site, a resort that’s already operational…it’s already proven, it works and it’s a good location – we can get an income stream straight away after buying it.”
Post-COVID, RAC WA went through “three very good years” when customers enjoyed revenge travel, although now Leary believes the company is now going through a “more normal cycle”, which will involve some revenue management in the future.
“But given we’ve got solid balance sheets, we’re a good, profitable business and we’ve got the bandwidth to invest in this strategy,” he said. “We’re very excited.”
