Flight Centre New Zealand has launched a new offering within its booking tool.

Book with Me generates a personalised URL that travel experts can send to friends, family and customers, which allows customers to book online direct with a particular travel expert.

Every online booking that is made using that travel expert's personalised URL connects that booking directly with that expert and their store.

Sue Matson, Flight Centre NZ general manager, retail, says that globally and locally, Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has been investing significantly in new technologies to continue to grow the company's ever evolving ‘customer choice' model.

“This is Flight Centre's ability to provide our customers with the means to speak to us and book with us, any time of the day, via whichever channel suits them (in-store, on the phone, via email, online, mobile, or via one of our mobile travel brokers).

“Investment in the online capabilities of our customer choice model has been a core focus in recent years for Flight Centre,” adds Matson.

In 2016, Flight Centre New Zealand released its ‘travel expert selection' model, which assigns a travel expert to a customer when a customer books their flights online.

Book With Me is a further innovation in this space.

“Even when we look to the future and the opportunities that advanced AI and CRM programmes will bring, having a travel expert through the process will still be an essential part of the experience.

Matson says all of these new technologies in the online space have seen Flight Centre New Zealand's online TTV grow significantly as more customers utilise the company's online offering.

“Early indications show that during last financial year, our online TTV has grown by almost 40% on the previous year,” continues Matson.

Flight Centre New Zealand claims the organisation is on track to achieve a record operational profit for the fiscal year 2017.