Cruising Excursions has rebranded as Venture Ashore as part of an amalgamation into the world’s largest independent cruise excursions provider.
More than 5,000 experiences in 111 countries and across more than 500 ports of call are now offered, which the firm said is almost double the number of experiences offered by Cruising Excursions before its acquisition by the Hornblower Group last year.
Venture Ashore falls into Hornblower’s City Experiences portfolio of brands, which also includes London-based City Cruises. Hornblower, parent of American Queen Voyages, also acquired ShoreTrips last year.
A UK team of seven led by director and chief operating officer Simonne Fairbanks with the support of head of trade sales Kirsty Bachelor and business development manager Liz Ryan will continue to help agents book excursions under the Venture Ashore name.
Chief operating officer Rinat Glinert (pictured) said there was scope to grow this team and that the rebrand of Cruising Excursions, founded in the UK in 2011, offered “huge potential” to agents looking to book shore excursions for their customers.
“We want to match our growth with the restart of the cruise industry,” she told Travel Weekly.
“Cruising Excursions was primarily focused on the Mediterranean and Asia although it was a global product,” she said. “We’re building out because we see a tremendous opportunity. In Alaska, Caribbean and Hawaii we have a really strong product mix.”
Glinert pledged to offer “the right experiences” based on where ships were operating and said Venture Ashore offered “a full itinerary of private tours that are very affordable” and different to lines’ own tours which she said were “created for the mass market”.
A new trip planner tool on Venture Ashore’s in-house portal Anchor allows cruise lines’ itineraries to be customised with tours and experiences available through the supplier. Some tours can be booked more than two years out.
Glinert said the Anchor platform allowed agents to market “efficiently” to clients in a “seamless” way.
Venture Ashore also offers a ‘Tour and Go’ product for passengers who want to book an experience on the day their cruise finishes before they fly home.