Ten years on top – FCM named Europe’s Leading TMC
For a tenth time since 2008, FCM Travel Solutions has been named Europe’s Leading Travel Management Company at the World Travel Awards.
FCM Travel Solutions, the flagship business travel division of Flight Centre Travel Group, has been named as the Leading Travel Management Company for Europe for the tenth year at the prestigious World Travel Awards.
The World Travel Awards programme celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and is acknowledged across the globe as the ultimate travel accolade. Awards are voted for by travel and tourism professionals worldwide and these accolades recognise the commitment to excellence FCM has demonstrated over the past 12 months.
Steve Norris, Corporate Managing Director, Europe and Africa commented: “We are extremely proud to win this award for the 10th year. This is an outstanding achievement and testament to the exceptional travel management services, professionalism and value that our people provide for clients in Europe, as well as FCM’s renewed focus on developing innovative technology solutions.”
This year’s award is particularly significant for FCM as 2018 has been a landmark year so far for the travel management company in terms of strengthening its equity-owned operations in the Nordics and Germany and launching innovative new business travel technology products in these markets.
FCM opened a new office in Berlin in January 2018, which will serve as its head office in Germany and has capacity for 100 employees. The Berlin office is already managing a client portfolio of around €50M, as well as handling a total of €8.5M of new business in Germany from new multinational clients won recently by FCM.
FCM has also introduced its powerful new technology platform FCM Connect, an innovative suite of next-generation interconnected business travel tools that gives clients a complete travel resource and transforms the user’s experience, whether booker, traveller or manager. The gateway to FCM Connect is ‘HUB’, which links the user to eight integrated evolutionary FCM-owned tools and superior third-party solutions from pre-trip approval and booking, to reporting and traveller tracking.
Sam, FCM’s ground-breaking “Smart Assistant for Mobile" for business travellers has been launched across Europe. Sam blends a powerful mix of Artificial Intelligence with the expertise of real FCM travel consultants to provide business travellers with personalised information about their trip via a chat-based interface on their mobile device. The highly interactive, travel-savvy app assists business travellers before, during and after their trip with everything from itinerary management, air and hotel bookings and flight updates to local city and country information, local weather reports, driving directions and security alerts.
Sam was first launched via the global app store in November 2017 in the UK, USA, Canada, France and Switzerland, but has now been deployed in 15 additional markets worldwide including Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and the Nordics. Sam’s premium features for use by FCM clients’ travellers include auto-synching the traveller’s bookings, integrated self-booking tool, live chat with an FCM consultant to provide service and make or amend bookings on the move; and the option for the user to ‘share location’ via FCM’s Secure risk management technology.
“This is an exciting time for FCM in Europe in terms of expansion and innovation, which is part of our overall strategy to provide unique services and experiences to our client’s travellers, bookers and managers,” said Norris