Much-loved heritage travel brands Page & Moy and Swan Hellenic are to be relaunched “within a year” by their owner G Adventures.
The Canadian touring and adventure operator acquired the brands in an auction after buying the assets of failed operator All Leisure Group, which collapsed in January 2017.
G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip revealed plans to revive the brands in his acceptance speech as he was inducted into the British Travel & Hospitality Hall of Fame on Monday.
Speaking at the event and also at a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast on Tuesday, he said: “We’ve done market research on both brands in the UK and the results were off the scale.
“There’s obviously a huge amount of affection and awareness still for both brands, especially Page & Moy, and it is our intention to bring them back.”
Poon Tip said the brands would not return in their previous form, and confirmed G Adventures did not have any aspirations to launch a cruise brand.
He added: “Whatever we do, it will be something that’s never been done, and that’s why we will take our time to carry out further research and make our decision.
“We won’t be going after the cruise market or recreating Page & Moy as it was – we don’t follow what other people are doing.
“We see this [and the acquisition of Travelsphere/Just You] as a great opportunity to see if our philosophy will work in a more traditional part of the industry.”
Poon Tip said G Adventures would continue to pursue an ambitious acquisition strategy while growing organically, with a focus on increasing its luxury and boutique offering and the vertical integration of the business.
“We will double in size in the next three or four years through organic growth,” he said.
“And I believe we can double that again through acquisition. We want to really own the group space, and we see a great opportunity in the luxury and boutique sectors where we are currently under-represented.”
He added: “We will also look to vertically integrate, whether that is into hotels or lodges. We now have the brand to be able to do that.”