Le Boat’s Managing Director says the company has a “massive job” to do in the Australian market, not only to educate locals but recover 2016 sales after a dip in business late last year.
Speaking to KarryOn, Cheryl Brown, said canal and river boat hire amongst Australians was “absolutely flying” for the 2015/16 financial year, until the attack in Paris in November, during which 130 people were killed at a rock concert.
She explained in the month after the shooting, people stopped travelling and business fell from Australia by around 70 percent.
“It [Australia] was one of the worst hit markets for us.”
Cheryl Brown, Le Boat Managing Director
It wasn’t until around January that bookings started to pick up from Australia and the month of February was the first month in the black since November.
Despite the slip in bookings, Brown said there’s still an “enormous amount of interest”, which she expects will translate into new business for 2017.
In the meantime, Le Boat has around five weeks to convince Aussies to hire out one of its boats in areas where vessels haven’t already been booked out by international travellers from Germany and the UK.
In order to grab last minute holidaymakers, the company will launch a five week marketing campaign mid-March featuring discounted prices and added value.
“There is a lot of interest – a lot of airfares available at reasonable prices. So while there’s still air available we’re hoping people will start travelling a little closer to departure.”
Cheryl Brown, Le Boat Managing Director
To help support agents in selling product, Le Boat will continue to offer 10 percent commission on bookings. The company has also started rolling out destination videos which bring the product to life by showcasing what viewers will see and do from the moment they get to the base to when they actually set sail.
Check out one of the videos below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCuM_MsEKvg
Meanwhile, Brown also told KarryOn that the boat hire company still has a “massive job” to do in building awareness in the Australian market.
“There’s still a lot of people out there that have got no a clue that they can do this type of holiday and never thought that they could do it without having a licence or experience. It’s still a massive challenge for us,” she added.
