Spotting Africa’s wildlife can stir the soul. But for Envoyage members, embodying their spirit may just transform their business. Karryon reports from Worldwide 2025 in South Africa.
At Worldwide 2025 in South Africa, Danielle Galloway, who leads Flight Centre Travel Group’s independent brands, including Envoyage, drew parallels between the African animal ecosystem and Envoyage’s own path.
Perhaps, it’s not a stretch.
For starters, lions symbolise strategy and forward focus.
“They don’t dominate by size, but lions lead through their presence; they lead through their strategy.”
Galloway says that, like lions, agents must look forward: “Lions don’t celebrate yesterday’s hunt. They survey for tomorrow’s territory… we are here to make you all future-fit.”
Envoyage’s ecosystem – from its customers and suppliers to tech like TPConnects (air marketplace) and HELiO (booking platform) – is crucial to this approach.
“This is how we’re winning and getting to a big business that is $2.4 billion in our market,” she states. “We are continuing to grow this and develop it… and make sure that you can all take from this ecosystem everything that you could possibly want for your business.”
Then there’s Envoyage’s link to the broader FCTG ecosystem, “which we pick and choose and learn from as well”. For instance, the group is harnessing Flight Centre’s ‘AI Centre of Excellence’ to drive productivity through cutting-edge AI technology – one of the company’s primary focuses.
Speed in business is also a necessity.
“[The cheetah] doesn’t gradually speed up. It explodes into the future. At Envoyage, that is our goal – to go fast and at speed,” Galloway says.
Agencies and advisors also need to adapt as booking windows shrink, from three weeks in 2019 to just seven days in 2025. Travel decisions are increasingly emotional, so “a delayed response equals cooled enthusiasm equals lost sales”. Acting fast is essential, as inventory and pricing change in real time.
As for elephants, they never forget, “and neither should we”, Danielle says. Envoyage mirrors this by always remembering its brand promise to members: “to unlock limitless possibilities for every journey.”
Arguably, the brand’s biggest priority is nimbleness. Galloway notes the leopard’s ability to thrive everywhere, spotting opportunities others miss. Similarly, Envoyage focuses on transformation, equipping members to be future-fit while encouraging them to actively evolve.
Six shifts shaping success
For Envoyage, transformation means focusing on six essential areas of business growth.
The first is NDC.
“Airlines can now personalise their pricing, bundle ancillaries and dynamically package directly to systems. The reality is that airlines are incentivising NDC adoption with exclusive fares, content, back-end, etc”.
According to Galloway, traditional GDS agents risk losing 30 to 40% of inventory, while early adopters are already seeing 15 to 20% higher margins.
“So part of our transformation, part of our focused attention, absolutely needs to be on NDC.”
The second is AI, which is “coming for all the parts that you don’t want to do in your job” – and not members’ jobs themselves.
It frees agents to focus on “the creation, the connection, and, of course, the care,” Galloway says.
“AI can handle 70% of the routine work that you’re doing. Predictive analytics can identify upsell opportunities you’d never spot manually. And also, the automated marketing can nurture 1000s of leads while you’re asleep.”
“So the key thing with this is to focus your human time on the high-value and high-touch transactions.”
The third area is value creation.
“Clients don’t pay for bookings anymore. They pay for outcomes. They pay for experiences. And of course, peace of mind. Your value isn’t in what you book, but it’s what you enable.”
While commodity bookings offer no margin, bespoke trip design commands 30 to 50% higher fees, Dani flags.
Fourth is the “great unbundling” of business models, with staff shortages and an “independent revolution” reshaping the industry.
“68% of new agents are starting as independent, and technology has made it incredibly easy to set up as an independent.”
Then there’s credential disruption.
“Influencers with 100K followers are now becoming travel advisors overnight”, creating potential liability and reputational risk. With this in mind, Galloway says the industry must uphold professional standards.
Finally, velocity is key.
“Clients expect Amazon-speed responses. The agent who responds in five minutes wins over the expert who responds in five hours.” With expectations dropping from 24 hours to two, speed now signals confidence in the digital age.
Specialise, localise, monetise
So what currently sets Envoyage’s highest-growing businesses apart?
Of the four factors, Galloway first sees “lots of high-cost specialisation”, with businesses focusing on destination or category specialisation, such as wellness groups.
She also flags the importance of a large local presence, saying some businesses are “dominating” dwindling markets, engaging in events and “being part of advocacy groups, being part of Facebook groups”. This is also raising their profile.
But of course, success involves more than simple bookings.
“It is now about a complete experience, making sure that you have all those concierge treatments while they’re booking, making sure they get that VIP treatment,” the Envoyage leader says.
“Because it is about adding that value. And of course, that means you can charge more.”
Galloway also emphasises the successful balance of a “digital presence with human touch” and praises “lots of really amazing strategic fee implementation” for maintaining commercial sustainability with transparency.
“We’re bold after COVID, but making sure that we are transparent about those things,” she adds.
Acumen and ambition
You could probably add an entrepreneurial spirit to that list – because Envoyage member agencies and advisors still have the flexibility and freedom to run their businesses as they see fit, despite being part of something bigger.
In an exclusive interview with Karryon, Envoyage Global General Manager Astrid Richardson says that, like parent group FCTG, Envoyage is primarily underpinned by entrepreneurialism.
“Part of the culture of this business is very entrepreneurial, in terms of ownership, etc. So we really understand the flexibility and choice piece really well, and we protect that fiercely. Our agencies have a lot of choice, our advisors have a lot of choice,” she explains.
“Regardless of where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, we’re there for you, and we’re not forcing you down one pathway or another; that will always be the case.”
Nearly 250 travel agent members joined over 100 industry suppliers and partners, plus 45 Envoyage global and regional leaders, for Worldwide 2025, held at South Africa’s Sun City.
The event’s theme, ‘Beyond Every Journey’, focused on innovation, transformation and building businesses that are ready for the future.
The writer was a guest of Envoyage. For more information on the group, click here.
