You’ve probably seen his smiling face on billboards across the country. Or you might have caught him on TV spruiking Flight Centre’s latest deals. But with a world of holiday options at his fingertips, how does the Flight Centre captain choose where to travel next? Karryon finds out.
Tom Walley has been with the Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) for 21 years. Currently Corporate Traveller’s Global Managing Director, he started out as a consultant in London in 2002. He rose quickly through the ranks and returned home to become Executive General Manager – Leisure Australia.
He’s also the face and voice of Flight Centre’s captain.
So how did a one-time travel consultant end up as the Flight Centre captain?
Tom used to joke around with Flight Centre Travel Group CEO Skroo Turner and COO Mel Waters-Ryan that he should be the captain.
“I used to fly planes before Flight Centre and I ran the Flight Centre brand and hosted the Global Gathering and that sort of stuff. So I was like, I think there’s only one thing left, and that’s to be the captain.”
Little did he realise what started as an innocent joke would end up coming true.
“The story I always tell people is I’ve ended up as the captain because, thanks to COVID, we couldn’t afford a real model so we had to get an employee,” Tom tells Karryon.
When the company changed its tagline two years ago to ‘Experience our experience’ it made sense to have one of its people face the company, cost benefits aside.
But why settle on Tom?
“We were running a competition. Everyone had to audition,” he says.
“And we had this Facebook workplace campaign, which has some very funny videos on it where we basically got a whole bunch of senior leaders to ‘audition’ to be the captain.
“And I was chosen off the back of quite a funny video that I did with Mel Waters-Ryan and Darren Wright (FCTG’s Global CMO).
“I remember being up in Noosa with my family and Mel rang me and said, ‘Hey, what if I could make your dream come true?’”
A dad first
But Tom had to think carefully about how being the Flight Centre captain would impact his life.
“I’m the MD of Corporate Traveller, so I have a persona that exists in market that is me as a senior leader in the organisation,” he says.
“I had to consider how it would conflict with what I do. And then probably most importantly was the impact on my family.
“When I was running the retail business, I’d been in the media a bit, and not just for the good things. And I remember my kids being really upset about it at the time and getting teased about it at school.”
Tom’s eldest daughter wasn’t a huge fan of her dad becoming the face of Flight Centre.
“She was probably 13 or 14 at the time,” he tells Karryon.
“She was the one who was most against it and probably because she gets embarrassed by me just existing let alone being on billboards. But her biggest fear was actually on social media platforms because obviously, her life revolves around Tik Tok and Snapchat and YouTube. And they use YouTube a lot at school and obviously ads roll on it.
“Anyway, in the end, she was big enough to go if it’s important to you then I’m happy.”
But it still comes up now. And Tom understands.
“I can remember being a teenager. I remember how embarrassing my parents were. But my parents weren’t plastered on billboards everywhere.”
Is he ever recognised?
Never, says Tom. But he recalls a time when he was driving back from having dropped his son at school.
“I was stopped at the front of an intersection. The traffic going across the other way was also stuck in the intersection and right in front of me stopped a bus with a massive picture of me on the side of it. So this picture of me was like literally two metres from my head and the guy in the car next to me, that’s all he could see as well.
“And then he looked across at me and I looked at him and I waved and then I pointed at the bus and I could see him go ‘What?’ and then ‘Oh my god!’ That’s literally the only time it’s happened.”
Flight Centre’s Next Top Model
The new captain launched in April 2021 and Tom had to put his game face on. Literally.
“I’ve obviously done photos before for various things. But this was different,” he says.
“They took about 3,000 photos in three hours. It was nuts. I can see how if you’re a model why you like certain photographers. The photographer was excellent. He just kind of made me laugh. And we just had banter and he kept taking photos and out of the 3,000 photos I think about 80 were really good.”
Tom also does all the interactive voice recordings (IVR) for the company.
“So if you ring 131 600, you’ll get me. And what amazed me was just how many IVRs you have to record. There are some days I sat in a booth and recorded back to back for like three hours. I did every single shop. And then we do a little bit of video content, on and off.”
Where the Flight Centre captain travels
Tom’s wife has always been interested in Costa Rica.
“She’s a big fan of nature. And she wanted to go to the cloud forest and see sloths and sea turtles on the beach and that sort of stuff.
“Her and I have travelled a lot over the years. That’s kind of how we met 30 years ago, so travel has always been a massive part of our relationship and therefore our family.
“My wife had been talking about Costa Rica and we thought the best way to do it would be with a tour because: a) we don’t speak Spanish; b) we’ve got kids; and c) we don’t really know where we’re going and what’s good to see.
“I know Bruce Poon Tip (the G Adventures founder) reasonably well and he’s always been very passionate about Central and South America. So I figured they probably have a pretty good view of what’s going on down there.
“I wanted to do one of their National Geographic tours because they were the ones that have slightly higher spec accommodation, and they are a bit more in depth into the wildlife and the local sustainability and that kind of stuff.”
So Tom not only booked with his family of five but also another family of five on the G Adventures Costa Rica Family Journey.
A family affair
With ten people and two of G Adventures’ CEOs (Chief Experience Officers), the families set off to explore Costa Rica. And the kids were suitably impressed.
“I’ve generally found with our kids (and I’m sure it’s true with most kids) if you get them out into nature, they’re generally pretty engaged,” Tom says.
“Unbeknown to us (because they spend their life on their devices) our older kids had obviously been on TikTok and looked at Costa Rica, and they actually had a pretty good view of what was there before we got there. Which is a big part of travel I reckon. If you do the research before you go, you often have a much better time because you know what to expect and what you want to see.
“And the guides were very engaging. They were great with kids. They knew what was important to kids.
“Kids like a fair bit of certainty. Where are we going? How long will it take? What’s for lunch? They’re quite into knowing what’s going on. The guides were great with that. And they’re also young enough in spirit to behave like kids, which is great. So they were awesome.”
What he loved
The sloths were a big hit with Tom and his family.
“They’re one of the most bizarre looking animals you’ll ever see. They’re kind of ugly but very cute. So we saw one on the second night we were there. The first night we just arrived late and went to bed so the next night we went on a night walk and they don’t often see sloths, but they found one in a tree high up. It was hard to see but it was real life.
“And then the next day we actually went to a sloth sanctuary and we could get up and close with them, which was really nice.”
The cloud forest also hit home.
“We’d probably call it a rainforest but they call it a cloud forest because it’s got this drape of cloud over it. And it’s really like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I live in Queensland, which has a fair bit of rainforest. But it’s like nothing else. It’s really kind of mystical. And it’s like nowhere else I’ve been really.”
To find out more about Tom’s trip, head to: www.gadventures.com/trips/costa-rica-family-journey-from-rainforest-to-coast/.
