The Blackmores were the owners of Sydney agency Turramurra Travel when they realised the potential of cruising and decided to open the dedicated cruise subsidiary.
They were among the pioneers of cruise sellers in Australia, with highly-trained and focused people on the staff of Cruiseabout which went on to win a string of major industry awards.
In 2002 the Blackmores sold Cruiseabout to Flight Centre, the Australian company billed as the world’s leading discount flight specialist, and the Blackmores remained for a while as product development managers.
Fight Centre grew the single Cruiseabout outlet into a large chain of stores around Australia and last financial year its total transaction value was around A$250m.
However, Graham Turner, who founded Flight Centre 36 years ago, decided earlier this year to shut down the Cruiseabout name and rebrand the outlets Flight Centre.
‘Flight Centre is by far the best known brand in Australia, so we believe we need to focus on that,’ Turner said.
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