AFTA UPDATE

I HAD the great privilege of attending the Flight Centre Global Gathering in Las Vegas over the weekend, and as someone who attends a lot of industry conferences all over the world, I have to say – wow!

What an event...a celebration of travel agents, retail travel, corporate travel, online innovation, indirect distribution, culture and a real family value of the people who work every day in that business.

Flight Centre Travel Group is a member of AFTA, so I am sure anyone reading this would be surprised at me saying anything other than positive things about a member, but when you get upclose-and-personal access to the culture and values of a company of the size and reach of Flight Centre, you can’t be anything other than in awe.

Flight Centre has become, and not without some serious strategy and focus, an enormous global business.

However, at the end of the day, it is really a handful of people who are setting the strategy and driving the direction of a business that has become multidimensional, multi-faceted, multi-channel and multi-country.

As an Australian business, it is difficult to really get a true feeling of how global, how large and how much people love working there.

It’s a credit to everyone involved, and my hat goes off to how they keep such magnitude and force heading forward and in the right direction.

As for the conference, Mark Wahlberg, Calvin Harris, Flight Centre business leaders, the Voice, (several of the Flight Centre travel consultants should be professional singers), Las Vegas – my column will never provide enough time to do it justice.

Congratulations to all involved in putting on an amazing event for over 3,000 people, & for being such an integral part of the global travel industry, but also a true leader in the Australian industry.

As Flight Centre goes forward successfully, the industry will go forward successfully, and while it may do it in its own way, it is very evident to me that there is a true deep-seated value that supports the broader industry, suppliers and all stakeholders as a good corporate citizen to compete but to be conscious that they are part of a broader industrial stakeholder group, and that is important - as together we are so much stronger as an industry at so many levels.

To demonstrate its true patriotism, next year the Global Gathering will be in Brisbane – which is very cool.

Thank you to all involved; what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I just needed to say – wow!