On The Deck: Mark Duguid

The recent news that Kuoni’s retail arm was to initiate an extension of its cruise product was great news for the industry. Not only was it a validation of what many see as an industry with huge potential, it was also confirmation that the luxury sector is booming. So what will Kuoni bring to the table? Fundamentally, it will be a fresh look and specially tailored experiences. A cruise will be one element of an entire package that will include land-based holidays and other potentials too. We spoke to Mark Duguid, vice president of commercial & product management at Kuoni, to find out more about the future of Kuoni’s cruise product.

Can you tell me how the decision for Kuoni to extend to its cruise offering came about?

Essentially it was a gap in our portfolio. We have seen significant growth in our retail estate and customers are coming in and looking for a cruise product from us. They see us as a broader travel provider rather than just the existing range. That, coupled with the positive sales we’ve seen on the narrow range we offer, made it an easy decision.

How did you decide on the lines you will be selling?

It was very much based on the customer profile. We took our current portfolio and used that model to develop our cruise offering. It’s a curated range, for instance we don’t aim to sell every hotel in Phuket like the online guys. We wanted what was right for our customers, and that philosophy was taken into the cruise programme.

How would you profile your customer?

Hopefully the kind that go on these ships! We have some three star product but it’s mainly four to five star and long-haul. So that means we won’t be offering cruises to the Mediterranean. However, we are experts in tailor made experiences. So it won’t be just a simple fly-cruise product. The cruise will form part of a wider itinerary.

What’s interesting is that by increasing the product to include land-breaks you will be widening the net considerably and bringing more people to cruise…

And that’s where we can make the difference. We know it’s a highly competitive market right now and it’s this tailor making side of things that it appears to us, the market struggles with. That’s our strength and we would struggle to do it any other way to be honest.

How are you going to be packaging the Kuoni cruise product? Will it have a dedicated brochure?

The plan is that cruise is going to form part of our wider range. So in all future brochures that come out, I will expect there to be cruise offering within that brochure. The next brochure will be out at the end of the year and there will definitely be some cruise product in that. Our January campaign will also have a significant cruise range as well.

And this will be sold throughout your stores and concessions?

Absolutely – and through the trade. We have price parity and have the same range through all of our channels. So if travel agents want to, they can come to us for help building more complex itineraries.

There is also going to be a Kuoni branded Celebrity Cruises brochure for January?

Yes, as well as including cruise within our own promotional material, we will rack brochures from some cruise lines in our stores too. This will be something we will run with our core partners, like Celebrity, which will have our own wrap.

Where do you want to take the Kuoni cruise range over the next year?

It is very much watch this space. We will be soft launching in November and hard launching in January. We will have to watch how it performs. We have a very small amount of partners, which could expand. We’re trying to manage expectations but because it is such a big segment we obviously see a lot of opportunity there.