Blue Bay Travel aims to double its volumes by the end of 2023 in addition to developing its homeworking business and branching out into other destinations and sectors, according to its new boss.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, recently-appointed chief executive Alistair Rowland said the OTA and operator plans to “cautiously grow” over the next two three years with twin-centre holidays, cruise and accommodation-only potential expansion areas alongside destinations including Thailand, Bali and the UAE.
Rowland said: “Our plan is to double our volume by the end of 2023. We think we will be about 15% ahead of 2019 by the end of 2021, ignoring 2020. Everything’s in the right place for it; it’s just about where the volume is coming from.
“Blue Bay’s core business is as an OTA transacting through Caribbean Warehouse, Tropical Warehouse and Exclusivity – so three websites. That business will recover to its 2019 level.
“Then we operate as the internal tour operator [supplying Midcounties Co-operative Travel], then we’ve got our accommodation-only business; and the growth of our homeworking business.”
He added: “They all will grow at different rates and that’s planned to lead to a doubling in volume over that period of time.”
Rowland confirmed he was looking to broaden Blue Bay’s destination offering beyond its strongholds of Mexico and the Caribbean and said expansion into twin-centre holidays next year would be “game-changing”.
“We’re were looking at Thailand. We think that’s going to be very significant for 2021, and we’re moving into Bali. But the big area we need to move into, including UAE, is twin-centre,” he said.
“There’s going to be some tech that will allow us to sell complex twin-centre itineraries, where you’re actually pushing out the whole offer and all of the added value into a specific offer for a specific lead-in price.
“Those itineraries should be available in the first quarter of 2021 and that really is quite game-changing because it does push us into a very different place.”
Rowland said that a move into cruise-and-stay packages was also on the cards, with Blue Bay seeing a strong response to selling the U by Uniworld river cruise product in recent weeks.
Describing the product as a ‘lead-in’ to the cruise market, he said further expansion was likely in the second half of next year when there was more certainty in the sector, with Blue Bay looking to take cabin-only fares and link them to “air, hotel and tour”.