THE fallout from the September 11 2001 attacks in the US, SARS, and the avian flu might have affected Australia’s inbound tourism industry, but it certainly hasn’t curtailed the growth of WA owned and operated travel group, Globetrotter Corporate Travel.
Globetrotter has enjoyed dramatic growth in the past four years, posting revenue of $33 million last year and opening offices across Australia.
It opened a branch in Darwin in February and in Melbourne last month.
Globetrotter owner John Battley intends to triple the size of the business in the next four years.
“We will open in Sydney later this year and in Adelaide and Brisbane next year,” Mr Battley told WA Business News.
He said a decision to focus on the corporate market more than a decade ago had paved the way for growth.
“As the leisure market looked to deteriorate in the early 1990s we sold that part off and concentrated on the corporate side,” he said.
“In the past four to five years it has really moved into top gear and it’s really taken off.
“Last year we did $33 million [in turnover] and that puts us as the biggest privately owned agency in WA, and one of the top 10 in Australia.”
Lat week Globetrotter announced a partnership with a national and international consortium that will drive bigger savings for its clients.
The consortium is made up of Australian-based CT Partners and global group Radius Travel, which has combined sales of $21 billion, generated by more than 4,600 travel agencies in 70 countries.
Globetrotter is the only Western Australian travel management company to be invited to partner with Radius.
“Within Radius is a group of about 100 corporate agencies located throughout the world which compete as a business group, and we’re now part of that,” Mr Battley said.
“This group can bid for global accounts. That is a very powerful thing that will take on the likes of American Express.
“This gives us a strong position in every major capital city in the world. So if someone wanted to book Frankfurt to Perth, up until now we have had access to excursion fares and not the ‘under-the-table’ deals.
“We now have access on our screens to all the cheap ‘under-the-table’ fares that we can book and deliver here.”
