Just yesterday, Goldman Travel Corporation and the Spencer Group of Companies broke the massive news of an innovative new joint venture with the Flight Centre Travel Group called Link Travel Group which will focus on premium and business travel.
Announcing the new partnership to the media, the group said that Link Travel Group will “aim to work closely with carefully selected independent travel businesses that are highly regarded in the premium leisure and corporate travel sector in Australia.”
You can read all of the details about the new partnership here.
We asked the joint Managing Director of the Goldman Travel Corporation and Board Director of the newly formed Link Travel Group Anthony Goldman to share his thoughts and feelings on why making the move was so important and why he’s excited about the future of being Linked.
Over to you AG …
It was around June 2021, after and during many weeks of lockdowns in Melbourne, wondering when the C-Word would disappear and our travel businesses would start a recovery. I sat in my backyard and I resolved to heed the words of Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza, to be “Master of our own Domain” (Gen Xers will understand).
The Covid-shutdown-meltdown highlighted the need for business people to be in control of their own businesses. To look closer at the levers that make the business successful, and then plan for a successful future that protects you, your families, your clients, your business, and the industry.
Link Travel Group is long overdue. I really believe that.
It’s a local home for Australian agencies to unite under a framework of transparency and trust. A place where agencies can work together, learn together and most importantly maximise business returns.
We’ve done the sums at Goldman. It works. We will all remain independent businesses, yet share knowledge of local market conditions, and best commercials and have some business fun on the way.
Goldman Group is also a longstanding, hard-working member of the global Virtuoso network and I am so proud to serve as the AU/NZ Board representative on the Global Member Advisory Board.
That amazing network has taught me the power of human connection. It has taught me that the power of collaboration and that sharing is priceless, and adds immeasurable value to our businesses.
I look forward to building solid relationships with Australian corporate and premium agencies, addressing nuts and bolts local Australian issues, and maximising our business yields.
It’s a changing landscape. The airlines are cutting our lunch (I’ll have more to say about that), we have staffing shortages, clients are more demanding and there are other business pressures.
Value will be demanded from every direction and if you stand still you will fall down. We need to keep innovating and developing new travel solutions for our businesses.
The Link Travel Group joint venture opens a treasure chest of tools, technologies and commercials for us to tailor for our businesses and show our clients how valuable we are to them. And that is exciting.
We have never stopped. And look forward to the future.
That’s why we are Linked.
For more, contact Scott Darlow, Link Travel Group General Manager at scott.darlow@linktravelgroup.com.au