India is pioneer market for Lufthansa City Centre Concept Diversification Programme
India has been selected as the pioneer market for the Lufthansa City Centre Concept Diversification Programme, a new scheme offering new categories of participation: LCC Affiliates and LCC Travel Consultant. Following a diligent qualification process, Lufthansa City Center (LCC) has appointed Travels and Rentals as the first LCC partner in the world entrusted to launch this scheme in tandem with Lufthansa City Center headquarters. As a “Premium LCC Member”, Travels & Rentals is now authorised to service as a “hub agency” for directly connected LCC Affiliates and LCC Travel Consultants.
How can Lufthansa City Center help travel agencies and TMCs to thrive and grow as the Indian travel industry continues to experience fundamentally changing trends in both leisure and corporate travel?
With more than 570 offices in over 90 countries and a total turnover of approximately 5.3 billion Euros, LCC is the biggest independent travel agency franchise system worldwide. The annual turnover is equally generated in the corporate as well as in the leisure segment. Worldwide, the LCC travel agency network unites 5,300 employees. In its home market Germany, the network of owner-managed, medium sized travel agencies comprises 300 offices with more than 2,400 employees.
Headquartered in Frankfrut, Lufthansa City Center carefully nurtures the international focus and global diversity of its participating agencies. Those agencies specialising in corporate travel can op to participate in the LLC Business Travel group. And a select number committed to developing more multinational corporate clients via LCC are elevated into the LCC Global Travel Group.
LCC agencies which focus on inbound destination management services participate in the Global Incoming Network (GIN). They can market and distribute their services to the rest of the LCC network via a sophisticated online platform and a comprehensive range of promotional activities. GIN offers a winning combination of local contacts, unique products and insider knowledge to LCC partners worldwide.
India is currently the fastest growing aviation market in the world, and poised to become the third largest aviation market globally by 2025. With more than three thousand IATA agencies, and more than 50,000 other travel agencies, it remains a challenge to ensure that consumers connect with the most professional travel agents in the market, offering accurate and reliable services.
In these circumstances, access to outstanding training, marketing, branding, technology and supplier programmes have become imperative for any travel agency to survive. Lufthsana City Center provides each of these key components to its franchise partners, facilitating long term sustainable growth with a clear competitive advantage.