FLIGHT Centre Travel Group’s hotel
and accommodation business, BHMA,
has opened its first hotel in Vietnam,
X2 Vibe Viet Tri Hotel, and announced
plans for its first hotel in Phuket,
Thailand, the X2 Vibe Phuket Patong.
BHMA does not own the properties but
rebrands and manages the operations.
The new location brings BHMA’s
X2 Vibe hotel portfolio to seven
properties, and to 27 total locations
across the X2 Resorts, X2 Vibe Hotels
and Away Resorts brands. BHMA’s
existing properties are located across
Southeast Asia.
Andrew Stark, FCTG Middle East
and Africa md, told TNW that BHMA
was wholly owned by FCTG and was
part of the group’s strategy to grow
its travel management routes across
the globe by 2030. “We aim to own
our distribution platforms and the
traveller’s experience, from booking
to in-destination. We want to sell the
client Mauritius [for example], have
them met by an FCTG-owned ground
handler and then have them stay in
a BHMA hotel. We will stop short of
owning the flight experience – we don’t
aim to purchase an airline.”
BHMA properties and Buffalo Tours,
FCTG’s ground-handling arm, can be
booked by Flight Centre agents through
Flight Centre Holidays, the brand’s
global product network. Other agents
can book these products direct.
Andrew said Southeast Asia was
a key market for FCTG’s expansion
because of the traffic it could pull from
SA, Australia and New Zealand.
BHMA md, Kent Davidson, said
BHMA was working on entering other
“critical markets” such as Bali, Fiji,
Queensland and the Maldives.
Carlos Luis, FCTG SA land product
manager, said Buffalo Tours was in
13 countries, all of which were in
Southeast Asia. “It aims to grow to 50
countries globally by the end of 2019.”
Carlos said about 40% of FCTG
South Africa’s land bookings
went through Flight Centre
Holidays at present, showing
roughly 10% growth compared
with three years ago.
“We encourage sales
through this channel by offering
our agents incentives, good
commissions and sending
them on educationals that
promote FCTG packages,” he
said.
