Deals seen as investments in high-growth areas of corporate travel, the USA, and in-destination travel experiences.
Flight Centre has just announced the acquisition of Californian corporate travel business Casto Travel, with the Silicon Valley agency set to enhance the company’s overall corporate travel footprint.
The company has also signed a 10-year agreement to lease the four-star Camakila Legian Bali hotel, a beach-front property which is already popular with FCTG’s leisure customers.
MD Graham Turner said the new Bali property would become part of the Bespoke Hotel Management Asia (BHMA) operation acquired by Flight Centre in 2017, which has other properties in Bali along with Thailand and Vietnam. The Camakila has been rebranded as Away Bali Legian Camakila and has 117 rooms including three luxury suites.
In terms of the US acquisition, “Casto strengthens our overall US operation, which includes the highly successful and rapidly growing corporate travel business, along with our online and offline leisure businesses and and wholesaler GOGO.
“This will give us greater scale in Silicon Valley and in the large West Coast market, where we previously had a relatively small corporate travel presence, while also complementing our larger operations on the East Coast and in other key locations,” Turner said. San Jose-based Casto Travel was established in 1974 and has 85 staff, generating about US$120 million in TTV.
In addition to the investments just announced, Turner said Flight Centre was also investing in new tools and systems for its customers and “is considering further opportunities to strengthen its leisure and corporate platforms”.
More details in Travel Daily when it resumes on 2nd January 2019.