Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has furthered its footprint in the high-end travel space, with the acquisition of luxury travel event ‘Luxperience’.
FCTG announced it had purchased Australia’s most well-known luxury travel gathering from event specialists, Diversified Communications Australia, who bought Luxperience less than six years ago.
Luxperience will sit alongside FCTG’s other luxury offerings, including Travel Associates and the Scott Dunn brand, which the group acquired just this year, and operate separately to the FCTG brand.
FCTG global CEO of Leisure James Kavanagh said the acquisition would boost the group’s luxury travel proposition for suppliers, agents and clients.
“Luxperience is very well-known in Australia and New Zealand, it has a strong reputation as a great quality annual hosted buyer event connecting high-end experiential travel advisors with elite suppliers,” he remarked.
“It is the only event of its kind in Australia and was therefore the right fit for the Group’s growing Luxury Travel Collection.
“As we emerged from the pandemic and luxury travel began to rebound, we felt the addition of a bespoke, luxury B2B event like this would strengthen our portfolio and provide opportunities for business growth and diversification.”
‘Boutique’ return
Luxperience has connected agents and buyers with suppliers and products in Australia since 2012.
Following two virtual events in 2021 and 2022, Luxperience will return with a “boutique version” from 13-17 November 2023 at the International Convention Centre, Sydney.
Travel advisors must pre-qualify for the event based on their luxury sales history.
Previous owner Diversified Communications Australia said FCTG’s reach made it the ideal platform to grow Luxperience beyond its current position.
“Diversified Communications is confident that FCTG is not only well placed to advance the Luxperience brand and leverage its far-reaching networks, luxury products and partnerships to ensure the sustainable growth of this incredible asset, but will also ensure that the strong brand equity that has been delivered will be continued with the same care and attention to detail that Luxperience is known for,” Diversified Communications Australia managing director David Longman said.
Current event director, Lynn Ormiston will also continue to lead the portfolio to preserve the brand’s equity, reputation and consistency of relationships and connections.
For more information on Luxperience, click here.
Also, read our interview with James Kavanagh.
