The chief executive of Imagine Cruising has shared plans to expand into the US market as well as engage more with agents in 2024.
Robin Deller told a Travel Weekly webcast he has “big steps” to take over the next 18 months as he looks to develop the tailor-made specialist.
Within the next 18 months, Deller plans to launch in the US, saying the “differentiation” Imagine Cruising offers “provides something the US market seems to lack”.
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He said the expansion may be a “big flop” or could be the “most successful source market” the agency operates in, which is what makes the move “so exciting”.
“The next big step we take in 12-18 months will be the next source market which will be the US,” he said. “If we’re going to be capable in that environment, we have to ask what the Americans want from a brand like Imagine and if we need to tweak the product range.
“We’re totally flexible so we will recreate to fit in. What we do know is the differentiation we provide is something that the market over there seems to lack to some degree.”
In the UK, Deller plans to “explore” the B2B market and begin working with agents from next year.
He said Imagine Cruising has the ability to “curate and create” product portfolios bespoke to the UK market, which will make it appealing to agents looking to sell something different.
Digital will also become a big focus for the company from January, Deller said, following the creation of a dedicated team, while the development of a television advert will begin at the start of next year.
“Up until now, we have never focused on digital, but over the past three months I’ve been building a digital capability with a whole team which is now in situ so we’ll be launching that in January and have all that growth to come of digital, social [media] and influencers,” he said.
“The next journey we’re going on is TV, so we will be launching a test and measure exercise within a TV framework across the Sky network, and that will happen in January as well. We’ve created a template structure of the advert and we’ll push different products into it and see what happens.
“Then within the next 12 months we’ll start to consider the B2B market. It may not be for the whole product portfolio, but there are certain parts of what we do where I think agents would work really well.
“I don’t want to go and offer [agents] something they can already do themselves and we offer charters and events and things that are obviously different. The ability and agility we’ve got, we can effectively curate and create product portfolios that are bespoke to the B2B network.”