FCM Meetings and Events, a division of the Flight Centre Travel Group, has launched in South Africa, providing a full-service MICE offering for local and inbound corporates, allowing them to book venues, flights, travel and event services all in one place.
Speaking at a launch event held at Cape Town’s Silo Hotel, Frits de Kok, General Manager for FCM Meetings and Events in EMEA, said FCM Meetings and Events had evolved out of their clients’ increasing need for event support and services.
“We are very much a travel management company with MICE capabilities,” he said.
South Africa joins 11 other full-service FCM Meetings and Events regions around the world, providing access to venue sourcing, travel services, event management and production capabilities. Levels of service provided include venue sourcing, event and group travel, managed meetings and event management.
Those seeking venue sourcing services will either be supported by an agent, or can use the online Venue Finder tool. The tool allows users to search through 250 000 venues globally with extensive coverage in South Africa. It also allows corporates to research, book and pay for venues directly, or to run an RFP process, in which properties can compete in a live bid process. The company said the tool could reduce overall sourcing times by up to 80% compared with traditional manual processes.
De Kok said the offering married the “left brain” priorities of procurement and travel managers, such as budget, duty of care and sustainability, with the “right brain” priorities of marketing and sales managers who “look to us to create the wow”.
Corporate customers will also have access to other technological systems to manage budgets, duty-of-care reports, event registration and websites, and sustainability reporting.
“It’s a full suite of technology that we are bringing into South Africa, as well as the investment in people and expertise,” said De Kok.
A recent State of the Market 2024 report found that 28% of businesses allocated more than 50% of their total travel budget to MICE-related trips. An additional 11% of businesses dedicate between 25% and 50% of their budget to MICE, while another 10% allocate between 15% and 25%.
Mummy Mafojane, FCM South Africa GM, said the South African MICE market was valued at over US$6bn (R116bn) with anticipated growth of 16% by 2032 “and we want to be part of that”.
“Our customers want an end-to-end solution. They don’t want to do flights and accommodation with us and then have to go somewhere else to find their venues. There is such a big need and it is ever growing when speaking with customers,” said Mafojane.
“Given the substantial allocation of corporate travel budgets towards meetings and events, there is a clear opportunity for companies to consolidate suppliers, optimise efficiencies, and enhance visibility over their spending,” she said.
