Mother-and-son duo Fiona and Daniel Thomas have launched a travel agency focusing on the luxury cruise market.
Between them the Winchester-based homeworking pair have been on more than 170 cruises as passengers, with Daniel racking up more than 50 and Fiona more than 120, and they are now bringing that experience to Fraser Campbell Travel.
Daniel’s passion for cruising began when he went on his first sailing at the age of four, which was followed by annual family holidays on different ships where he “fell in love” with the experience.
He describes himself as “a self-confessed cruise nerd”, who used to regularly visit the port in Southampton to admire the ships and the operations on tight turnover days.
Thomas added: “My mum and I talk about cruises a lot and I think we bore people to tears with it all the time. It’s great to combine the two perspectives: one of her as a guest, and then me as the operational person.”
This operational experience comes from Thomas turning “a passion into a career” in the cruise industry.
His first role was a part-time position in Carnival UK’s call centre at the age of 17 while studying at college.
Thomas’ first experience working on a ship came on Carnival’s secondment programme at 18 years old, and he later worked for P&O Cruises, Cunard, Azamara Cruises, Royal Caribbean Group, Celebrity Cruises, and most recently the Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection.
The idea for setting up an agency, named after his middle names, was born in the pandemic and Thomas’s experience in guest services roles led him to prioritise bringing “the best experience” throughout every stage of the booking process.
He said: “I decided to set up Fraser Campbell Travel with the purpose of bringing the ‘wow’ experience that clients have on board their cruises and what they really, really enjoy, and try and bring as much of that forward as possible, from the moment they pick up the phone to various points throughout the client’s journey with us.”
This links back to a “thoughtful amenities” approach from Thomas’s time on cruise lines, gleaned from “golden nuggets of information” from interactions with passengers.
To enable this personalised approach, Thomas has spent “a long time” developing a comprehensive CRM system and a business model which allows them to spend as much time as they need to get to know guests on a one-to-one basis.
An example of these “small touches” might be setting up a gift for clients coming back from holiday with a gift for their pet as well.
He added the current plan for the agency is to introduce members “very slowly”, as they bring their systems and processes online to ensure they are giving “the right service level”.
“Once we’re happy with that, we can then scale in a moderate way, never too fast, because the most important thing for me in this whole journey is our client service levels,” Thomas stressed.
The “number one goal” for the agency is a net promoter score (NPS) of 100, he added.
So far, Thomas has seen trends for longer-length voyages for celebrations, which could range from 30 to 50-night sailings, along with fly-Med cruises in the shorter term.
The agency has also partnered The Travel Network Group and Travel Trust Association, which Thomas says made them feel “so welcome and part of the community”.