Travel Associates has dropped ‘anchor’ on its gem pin at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal, along with 10 luxury cruise brand partners, to celebrate the start of the luxury cruise season. Karryon Luxury reports.
The FCTG-owned Travel Associates brand, with 65 businesses across Australia and New Zealand, will be launching a series of events in Australian and New Zealand cities to showcase luxury cruise experiences.
The 10 luxury cruise brand partners at last night’s Sydney launch event were Crystal, Disney Cruise Line, Explora Journeys, Hurtigruten Expeditions, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Scenic Eclipse, Tauck and Viking.
Attending the first event in Sydney last were executives of the 10 cruise brand partners, media and content creators. Guests gathered overlooking the Sydney Opera House and could choose from 10 cocktail recipes supplied by mixologists of each of the luxury cruise brands.
Model, presenter and influencer Francesca Hung greeted guests before handing the microphone over to Rachel Kingswell, General Manager Travel Associates, AU/NZ; and Danielle Galloway, Global Managing Director of the Luxury and Independent divisions for FCTG.
“What we’re here for tonight is to launch cruise season. Luxury cruising is really growing – and growing fast. Last year, we had a 26 per cent increase in luxury cruise for our market, and it makes up about 25 per cent of our brand sales. We work with the most incredible partners in the industry, and we’ve got many of them here tonight,” said Kingswell.
The event served as a ‘preview’ of some of the consumer events Travel Associates will be rolling out throughout numerous cities in coming months.
“We are so confident in this part of the market that we have invested over the coming weeks in consumer events across five major cities. We have been selling tickets like no tomorrow – and seeing so many new customers that are really excited about cruising. We are showcasing over 20 of the best luxury partners at these events,” said Kingswell.
Danielle Galloway then spoke about the trends they are seeing in cruising at Travel Associates.
“Firstly the entry of the new luxury cruiser. There is more new-to-industry luxury cruisers than we have ever seen. The really interesting stat for us is that 26 per cent of cruisers are new to industry,” said Galloway.
“The second trend is the small ship and river luxury cruising, it is growing in demand quite significantly… and it’s thanks to their ability to reach more exclusive destinations than larger ships,” she said.
While Europe was identified as “still an undoubtable top destination in our business,” Galloway also pointed to new destinations such as Scandinavia as “climbing the ladder” to join the classic Mediterranean region in popularity.
Bucket list experiences and the significant investment going into ship inventory were also identified as key trends in luxury cruising.
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