FCM Travel Solutions has created a new tool called Marketplace, which acts as a ‘virtual gateway’ to the TMC’s proprietary and specially-negotiated air fares, hotel rates, car rental and rail booking options.
The solution is driven by FCM’s team of 500 global travel procurement specialists. Each team member is responsible for a specific sector of supplier relations, from air and hotel to rail and ground transport and has at least ten years’ experience in supplier negotiations. The team leverages FCM parent company Flight Centre Travel Group’s global stature to agree savings and tailored content for customers’ travel programmes.
As a result of the team’s work, FCM says clients have access to specialist fares from 420 airline partners, 112 global rail providers and car hire deals in 97 countries. The TMC claims this creates an average saving of 12 per cent on air tickets within its customers’ programmes.
Marketplace also offers 20 million room rates, including 5 million negotiated rates at 650,000 properties globally and 2.3 million exclusive promotional rates at 60 hotel brands worldwide.
Mick Heitzinger, product director for FCM EMEA, said: “Travel content is vast and covers a huge array of choice, which can be confusing for the corporate customer. Travel buyers are frequently concerned about whether they are getting the best value, the widest choice of air content, hotel rates and so on, in order to achieve cost-savings and ROI on their travel programme. At FCM, we have recognised the need to deliver all types of travel content from multiple sources in a way that the corporate wants to see it and consumer it, whether manager, traveller, or booker.
“At the same time, the distribution landscape is becoming increasingly fragmented as new entrants have disrupted the market and online travel agents have added confusion. This has added complexity and cost to corporates. Travel managers and procurement directors want to ensure that they have the best fare or rate. They want price parity across channels. They want choice for their travellers and be safe in the knowledge that they can capture data from all bookings made outside of corporate channels in order to satisfy duty of care. Ultimately, they want content in one place.”
Heitzinger concluded: “Not only does Marketplace give our customers access to FCM’s exclusive and vast range of global content all in one place, it also embraces disrupters and new entrants to the distribution landscape to ensure our customers have full availability and visibility. Our core purpose with Marketplace is to provide our customers with the widest travel content in a way that no other TMC can so that they benefit from unparalleled choice and savings.”
fcmtravel.com