Mauritius remains a key focus for SA leisure travellers

Image: Wikimedia Commons

South African's love Mauritius - our quarterly statistics have been consistently telling us this for the past 24 months. This is based on its proximity to South Africa and the value that travellers get against each rand spent. Our research shows that as a business, we are sending up to 5,000 travellers per quarter to Mauritius. This represents significant numbers of travellers per year, and it leads us to direct our energies towards further unpacking the relevance and popularity of the destination, and how we as a business could offer South Africans more value by leveraging our global buying power for their benefit, by introducing exclusive Red Label Holidays.

Travel is about people - what they want to see, do, learn and experience. We understand destinations and we understand people. Mauritius is our passion and over time we have identified various reasons why people travel to the island and also their pain points associated with planning and going on the trip. We also understand that with the variety of resorts available on the island it can be difficult to choose the one that is right for your needs. We've analysed the needs of these 20 000 annual travellers to Mauritius, and grouped their needs into three distinct holiday packages.

Red Label Holidays

Part of our strategy in launching the Red Label Holidays has been to identify the right partners to work with. Flight Centre is a travel retailer - we don't own properties, but we do have the benefit of having access to the best resorts and facilities on the island, and negotiating packages for our customers. As a global company our buying power through the Flight Centre Global Product division puts us in an excellent position to form strong relationships and lucrative contracts with our partners in Mauritius. We selected the Red Label Holidays partners based on sales performance and the level of exclusive added value they could provide our customers.

Many travellers to Mauritius travel as families. Another portion travel as couples and both groups often prefer to travel on a full-board basis. We have therefore structured the Red Label Holidays into three categories: Family Fiesta - based on family friendly resorts that have a range of activities, awesome kids clubs and benefits suited to all members of the family; Just for 2 - resorts catering to couples and honeymooners with a relaxed vibe, fantastic beaches and less of a focus on children; and All-in - resorts where all meals and selected drinks are included and your biggest worry is when to apply more sun block!

These packages equate to awesome value in that they include up to R3000.00 in resort credits per couple. This credit can be used towards spa treatments, cocktails, excursions and more, providing excellent added value. We have also negotiated some exclusive benefits with Air Mauritius should travellers purchase holidays in the Premium category of Red Label Holidays. These benefits include express check-in for families purchasing a Family Fiesta package, complimentary lounge access for couples on a Just for 2 holiday and free golf bag allowance for the All-in packages.

Flight Centre is influencing the travel industry - we are moving away from being a traditional travel agent to becoming an actual retailer of our own unique, off-the-shelf range of products. We're educating our customers on what they know they want, but may not necessarily be able to articulate at the time of planning a holiday.

Our Red Label Holidays allow them the luxury of not needing to express their needs beyond knowing the name of the package they want. We would like travellers to walk into our stores and simply request a Family Fiesta holiday for example, and be confident in the type of holiday and benefits they will be receiving.

The move from travel agent to travel retailer is a global directive from our offices in Australia and the UK. As a global company we will continue to focus on identifying our customers' needs and pain points, and finding unique solutions to meet these needs in innovative and creative ways, in order to make holidays as hassle free, cost effective and enjoyable as possible.