The growing popularity of daily deals in the travel space could be about to help traditional agents do business, following the launch of a new type of product.
Flight Centre recently acquired 49% of Gold Coast-based Ignite Travel Group with the deal set to dramatically change things for the traditional retail model, according to Ignite’s director Randall Deer who spoke at Traveltech in Sydney last week.
Randall Deer at Traveltech last week
Ignite’s Get Luxe range, available in Escape Travel stores, blends the benefits of buying travel from a traditional agency with those of the voucher industry, Deer told delegates.
The idea is to enhance Flight Centre’s “traditional” offering by removing the often confusing element of choice, providing an all-inclusive package right off the shelves which is unmatchable elsewhere.
“In this partnership, we’ve carefully created a new product, a product they don’t already have, that can sit on their shelves and attract that customer they’re not currently attracting,” Deer explained.
These could be the types of consumers lured by the growing number of holiday deals marketed by group buying or daily deal sites such as Luxury Escapes or Scoopon, for example.
Price parity within the industry has made “genuine exclusivity” impossible on a big scale, according to Deer.
But Get Luxe aims to remedy that with a unique and compelling offer that will attract customers who don’t really have a particular holiday in mind by “screaming at them from the front of the store”.
As a result, Deer strongly believes sales of Get Luxe products will be incremental to existing agency sales.
Removing “friction” for the customer is also a major part of the process.
“They’re upper end all-inclusive travel products but you can check availability before you actually buy the voucher,” Deer told delegates.
Unlike deals bought through group buying sites, there is no need to then contact the resort to make the booking.
The aim is to roll the model out across all Flight Centre Travel Group stores over time.
