Cruise Holidays has reported “very encouraging” levels of interest from the trade as it moves towards its official Australian launch in January.
Managing director Les Farrar told Travel Today that the launch of the Australian arm of the North American cruise specialist brand, announced in July, is “pretty much on track”.
But he stressed the firm is eager to have everything in place in order to ensure the business is able to “hit the ground running”.
Rebranding of the stores and implementation of the Cruise Holidays mid and back office systems have proved a considerable task, and the 90-day staff training scheme is time-consuming, Farrar explained.
“But the encouraging signs are there so we do want to get it out as quickly as possible,” he said.
So far, Cruise Holidays numbers three home-based agents and three retail stores in its ranks, but Farrar was optimistic that number would rise by the time of the launch.
“That’s reasonably humble beginnings, but we still haven’t officially launched, so I think it’s a fairly good start,” he said.
Meanwhile, he was unfazed by the announcement from home-based agent network TravelManagers that it would collaborate with CruiseCo to provide its agents with increased access to cruising packages.
“It validates the model. It suggests that there’s definitely a market out there for people who want to concentrate on cruise and be home-based,” he said. “I still think we’ll do a better job of that because we’re totally focused on cruise.”
