Dreamlines-Cruise1st targets ‘significant growth’ by developing AI and packages

Dreamlines-Cruise1st Group is targeting “a significant increase in profitability” through focusing on developing practical uses for AI and expanding its package range.

 

Online travel agent Dreamlines was founded in 2012 and has established a presence in key cruise markets outside the US, such as the UK, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.

 

The German cruise specialist company acquired the Manchester-based Cruise1st in 2018 for an undisclosed sum.

 

Former Tui Musement chief commercial officer Nishank Gopalkrishnan joined as chief executive officer in August and said the company is making “good progress” on “two key areas to improve on” he has identified: the use of AI and expanding its cruise package portfolio.

 

He said the customer experience when booking a cruise online “still has a long way to go” when compared with flights and hotels.

 

Gopalkrishnan said: “When you lift the hood in cruise, a lot of it is still not as automated as one would like it to be, and so one area of our investment is about making it easier for customers to not only book cruise but also cruise packages.

 

“That is an area we are very, very excited about all the investments we are making because we feel that’s a space that we can really differentiate in and do better than our competition.”

 

He added: “The second area [of improvement] is more AI for efficiency. It is not a strategy in itself but a productive retool and so we have been using AI in very practical way and identified 25 use cases across the business to prioritise and implement.”

 

Gopalkrishnan said AI was being rolled out across customer service, sales, finance and tech with a “test and learn approach”, citing examples in invoicing, translations and recommendations where it was saving time so employees could be moved to “higher value tasks or actions”.

 

“Our use of AI in invoicing is saving 2,000 man hours a year alone,” he revealed, adding: “These savings allow you to then invest in places like marketing and product, where the correlation between revenue is much higher.”

 

When it comes to cruise packaging expansion, he said these made up more than 60% of sales currently and, in future, the aim is to bring in “more scale with technology”.

 

“The path we’re taking is more around creating cruise packages at scale and having a human to refine it so that you have much more choice,” he said.

 

“We will have a custom package for customers ready already, including transfers, flights, insurance, so many different elements that don’t really make you think too much about this larger trip and it is going to be incredible value.”

 

He said this area was where Dreamlines-Cruise1st “can stand out from the market” and can be “our space to win”.

 

Gopalkrishnan said this year’s profitability for the online cruise specialist will be nearly double last year’s total, and the business has “ambition to significantly grow” on that base.

 

He said: “In the next three years, we are looking at a significant multiple on profitability, and a lot of that growth will come from optimising how we operate as a business.

 

“This is where a lot of the AI investments come in and a bulk of that growth will come from driving more demand and having more and more customers come to us because of our incredible set of cruise packaging product.”

 

Gopalkrishnan added Dreamlines-Cruise1st had “reconfigured” the structure of its UK team following the departure of product director Paul Hunter in October, confirming the online agency has hired more people on the sales and product teams ahead of wave.