Flight Centre, parent of Gogo Worldwide Vacations and Liberty Travel, has acquired a majority stake in Gapyear.com, a U.K. youth travel website.
The Australian company paid an undisclosed amount for Gapyear.com, which was founded in 1998 by Tom Griffiths and Peter Pedrick. Griffiths will remain CEO of the company, charged with leading the global rollout of the brand and website.
"Gapyear.com is a unique online and offline brand that is not only an industry descriptor but which includes the domain name within the brand — a rarity. It has enormous global potential and slots naturally into our stable of businesses in the independent and adventure travel market," Chris Galanty, managing director for Flight Centre U.K., said in a statement.
Galanty said the "gap year" market is valued at more than $10 billion. During a gap year, young adults take a break from education to travel.
According to Griffiths, the ability to tie Gapyear.com into Flight Centre and Liberty Travel stores will enable the company to deliver a trip-planning service globally.
The vision is a creating a "multimedia, multi-platform offering under one brand with one simple global strategy delivered to a niche low-volume but high margin customer," he said.
"It sounds simple on paper but there are many challenges ahead," Griffiths said. "That said, we’re confident in the model, and the fact that it has never been done before makes it extremely exciting."