Cheapflights may only be two years into the metasearch business, but it’s ready to expand and build its relationship in Australia, particularly with Aussie trade.
Managing Director of the travel search site, Andrew Shelton, told KarryOn that the company has spent the last year building the product to a point where it’s ready for more trade involvement.
In addition to designing a clean and user-friendly site, he said Cheapflights has also focused on ensuring it’s working in favour of agents and airlines.
“We converted to metasearch two years ago and we’ve been building the product gradually over the last year.”
Andrew Shelton, Cheapflights Managing Director
Shout out to everyone who made it to celebrate Cheapflights milestone in Sydney tonight #CheapflightsANZ pic.twitter.com/6y0ORw7fre
— Cheapflights (@Cheapflights) February 24, 2016
“The product is now ready to expand because it’s at a standard we’re happy with and the Australian market has grown really quickly for us.”
According to the company’s latest figures, the number of Australians using the travel website increased 150 percent last year compared to the prior year. This was driven by a mix of both domestic and international searches.
With such a large spike in organic growth, Shelton revealed to KarryOn that the company was ready to increase its local presence with the appointment of a Regional Sales Manager.
The person, whose name will be released next week, will be in charge of building relations with trade and meeting with agents across Australia and New Zealand.
They’ll also have the task of expanding people’s knowledge of metasearch websites, which Shelton said there’s still a little confusion around, especially in the young Australian market.
“It’s important we build strong relationships with trade.”
Andrew Shelton, Cheapflights Managing Director
“We need somebody here.”
While Shelton sees Cheapflights as a product that fills the market for people who want to compare online, he did have some encouraging words for retail agents, saying he believes they’ll always have a strong place in the industry.
“High street will survive for some time.”
Andrew Shelton, Cheapflights Managing Director
“We saw that in the UK, it survived and big brands are always opening up retail spaces because people do want to come in and speak to somebody. There’s definitely a need for that.”
Currently Australians are the fourth largest users of Cheapflights’ website (www.cheapflights.com.au), just behind the US, UK and Canada.
Sydney is the second most searched city, following London, and Melbourne is at number five.
