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Airtours bids to improve position in cruise market


Wardrope: Airtours ‘staying ahead of the game’



AIRTOURS head of special products Gary Wardrope claims his company will steal market share from P&O Cruises following its introduction of ex-UK cruises and a four-star ship.



The tour operator will run its first UK cruises out of Southampton to the Norwegian Fjords and the Baltic in 2000.



Meanwhile, it has just launched Sunbird, which offers four-star facilities plus penthouse suites with butler service for the first time.



“I think we will take more market share from P&O with our new additions,” said Wardrope.



He claimed that Sunbird’s suites were the same size as P&O’ s, yet cost customers only half the price. Wardrope’ s comments follow an attack on Airtours and other operators selling cheap cruises by P&O’ s managing director Gwyn Hughes, who claimed they were damaging the industry by marketing purely on price.



Hughes denied that Airtours had affected P&O’s market share (Travel Weekly May 31).



However, Wardrope claimed tour operators had “reinvented the wheel” by entering the cruise market in 1995 and generated a huge burst of growth in the sector.



He claimed that Airtours was staying ahead of the game by entering the ex-UK cruise market, which attracts many passengers who don’t like to fly. He said he could not understand why Thomson hadn’t followed suit. Wardrope added that 35% of Airtours’ passengers were repeat bookers, and that its cruises received higher satisfaction ratings than any of its other products.



n Airtours has appointed Colin Currie to the newly created post of training manager for specialist products, which include cruising, skiing and lakes and mountains. Currie, who starts in mid-July, was formerly entertainments manager for Airtours’ hotel programme Sunwing.



Wardrope said that the number of agents receiving training on specialist products would increase from 200 to 2,000 a year as a result of Currie’ s appointment.


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