Flight Centre to bring back corporate travel event ‘Illuminate’ in October

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has announced that its corporate travel management event, Illuminate, is set to return in just a couple of months’ time.

Based on a ‘Time to Fly’ theme, the event will be hosted by the Australian corporate arms of FCTG (FCM, Corporate Traveller, Stage and Screen and Flight Centre Business Travel), and will capture the importance of doing business in a post-pandemic world.

“After a 12-month hiatus, Australia’s premier corporate travel industry event will really show our path to freedom and light the way forward for the business travel industry at home and abroad,” said FCTG’s managing director for Australia, James Kavanagh.

“While the industry outlook is largely optimistic and road warriors are eager to ramp up their travel for more face-to-face meetings, we know the travel landscape has shifted. It’s time to embrace the new normal in business travel.”

With a deep dive into all the key issues impacting the corporate travel sector, Kavanagh said this year’s content at Illuminate will be crucial for anyone involved in the business of travel.

“Never has it been so important to understand how your travel program needs to evolve to accommodate the post-pandemic world – a world that includes new protocols and precautions at every stage of the traveller journey,” he said.

“We’re leading the way in the corporate travel industry, and we want to give our customers the confidence and arm them with all the information they need to return to travel. That will not just be through us, but some heavy-hitting speakers will also be making these points.

“Vaccinations and borders will be a hot topic for some time, but what we do know is there is a pent-up demand from our customers wanting to connect again – with a genuine need to visit customers and employees high on the priority list – and it’s also critical to winning new business.

“Regardless of what’s happening around us with lockdowns now, we know there is a path to freedom through vaccinations, and we can’t keep cancelling major events – we have the technology and team to forge ahead and lead the recovery in the event and travel space.”

The announcement comes not long after FCM Meetings & Events appointed industry expert Andrew Yell to the role of group travel business leader in Australia.

Meanwhile, sister brand Stage and Screen has been welcoming home more than 300 Aussie athletes from the Tokyo Olympics, having been responsible for the planning and execution of their travel between Australia and Japan.