All Leisure Group sees ‘amazing opportunities’ in Australasia

Wilson arrived on Tuesday from Auckland and was guest of honour at a dinner Wednesday night for travel agents and members of the media hosted by the company’s new gsa, Discover the World.

Wilson, who leaves on Saturday, was last in Sydney 20 years ago as a director of Lunn Poly Travel, at the time the largest chain of retail travel agents in the UK with 800 stores. It was absorbed by TUI Thomson.

‘I brought some shop managers to Australia,’ he told Seatrade Insider. ‘We had just three days in Sydney, two in Queensland and then flew home.'

He said the decision to appoint Discover the World, a global sales and marketing company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, was made late last year and it officially began working for All Leisure in March.

‘One of the things I am obviously keen to do is broaden distribution for our cruise products and they are now selling us in South Africa,’ he said.

A review of the first few months with the Discover the World team in Sydney was ‘really encouraging.’

Wilson said Australasia is a small source market for All Leisure Group, but he believes there are amazing opportunities.

‘This is part of the reason I am here,’ he said. ‘The growth of the Australasian cruise market is great news because we will almost be a by-product of that.’

All Leisure has no desire to expand its fleet of three ships.

‘We are a small player and we appeal to a particular type of customer with the richness of our itineraries,’ Wilson said.

‘Our model is very different to a lot of other cruise lines. We are not obsessed about on-board spend. We have longer time in ports and more overnights because we want our passengers to spend more time ashore to experience the destinations.’