A new partnership with Aqua Expeditions will see Travel Indochina become the Australian trade partner for the small ship luxury cruise line's new Mekong River cruises aboard the Aqua Mekong.
The new partnership, announced at the launch of Travel Indochina’s 2014-16 Luxury Asia River Cruise Portfolio last night, will “set a new standard” of small boat luxury on the Mekong, according to TI managing director Paul Hole.
“Aqua Mekong has the aesthetics and facilities equal to the most sophisticated five-star hotel, features world class cuisine designed by Asia's top ranked chef, David Thompson and offers its own deck mounted tenders to provide on shore excursions into the heart of Mekong life, culture and nature,” he said.
“Luxury of the likes of this ship has never been seen by Australian river cruise aficionados unless they have been lucky enough to travel on Aqua's Amazon based vessel.”
Aqua said it is looking forward to bringing the experience it has created on the Amazon to the Mekong.
“We’re really reaching out to guests who are not willing to compromise on quality,” a spokesperson said.
The cabins will be the largest standard cabins on the river, she revealed, measuring 30 m sq.
Meanwhile, Hole reported strong growth for Travel Indochina’s Asian river cruising product which has surged 130% in the last year alone. It is now the company’s second most important market sector after its core small group journeys.
“Having personally shared the experience of sailing on small boats along the Mekong, I'm more resolute than ever to bring this style of travel to travellers who prefer this style of exploration,” Hole said.
“We've been sourcing more exclusive experiences as we develop an increasingly extensive product suite of quality cruise experiences and carefully crafted itineraries to meet our travellers' demand, and importantly with a flexibility of offerings between tailor made and scheduled departures and itineraries.”
Other new additions to its range of cruising which will launch in late 2014 and early 2014 are Haimark Luxury Expeditions' Irrawaddy Explorer and Ganges Voyager I which are to sail Burma's Irrawaddy River and India's Ganges River respectively.
Travel Indochina and Aqua Expeditions are keen to clarify that the arrangement with Travel Indochina is as Aqua Expeditions primary trade distribution partner in the Australian Market place for the Aqua Mekong, not ‘sole’ distributor which might imply exclusivity. The Aqua Mekong will be distributed into the Australian Market place by other Asia based DMC's, along with some long term existing retail partnerships in this market.
