Speaking to TTG at the TTNG conference in Bucharest, Wilson, who has previously worked for Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Virgin Holidays, outlined the “opportunity” he foresaw for members to grow their cruise sales further. 

Ocean cruise bookings have increased by 2% year-on-year and currently constitute 20% of TTNG’s overall business, while river cruise sales have increased by 1% year-on-year to represent 4% of the consortium’s sales.

When asked why TTNG created a new cruise director position and filled it, Wilson said: “We have the Cruise Club, which is a tour operator – in itself unique in the consortia world – but also the cruise markets, ocean, river and expedition, are all growing.

"There’s an opportunity for all of our members to sell more cruise. So it really was a case of joining the dots and putting someone in who is solely looking after the Cruise Club and to really use that as platform to grow the overall cruise volume.”

Wilson said he was “a little bit surprised” ocean cruise sales amounted to only a fifth of TTNG’s overall business, but pointed out how this represented “such a good opportunity to grow”. “We want to make our members more profitable, and cruise is a good way to do that,” he said.

To that end, Wilson revealed how he is currently talking to cruise lines about hosting TTNG’s first dedicated cruise conference onboard one of their ships. “It’s early days for me,” said Wilson, who revealed a number of members had shared feedback on how the cruise conference – planned for early next year – could look.

Wilson continued: “A cruise conference with our preferred suppliers can really work as an education piece for agents where they can share stories, feedback and take learnings from the event. We can then put together a plan of how we get to the next level.”

In addition, Wilson also hopes to take cabins on certain sailings from the end of September onwards to create bespoke fly-cruise packages which members can sell to customers. “What I’m starting to talk to members about now is really using TTNG’s buying power from a cruise groups’ perspective,” he explained. 

“My thinking is we will be able to buy centrally large volumes of cabins on certain sailings which will allow us to give added benefits to our customers but then locally personalise what the holiday will look like.”

Wilson stressed the as-yet-unnamed initiative will be built up over time and could extent to partial, or even full, ship charters. He added: “[The scheme] will support the profitable growth of our members.”

’Unlimited budget to grow cruise sales’

TTNG chief executive Gary Lewis said the budget available to grow members’ cruise sales is “unlimited”, before adding: “The restriction is talent. So, if we require three or five people, that is what the budget will fund. We know we’ve got the business to service the members.”

On Wilson’s hire, Lewis said: “We’re never happy with where our cruise sales are. I think the reality is we were the first consortium to market with a cruise Atol solution for our membership, and we’d been doing the same thing for the last four, five years. What we really needed to do was bring in the expertise at senior level to take our cruise business to that next level.

"We had been talking about this for a while and getting the right talent. We had interest from some really exceptional candidates, but I think in John we’ve got experience, product knowledge and his knowledge of tour operating and retail. He’s the perfect fit.”