The operator has renewed its focus on former Travel 2 brand Incredible Journeys, which managing director Applebaum said was exceeding expectations despite being in a soft relaunch phase.

Applebaum said the touring division, which packages up a wide range of product from third-party tour suppliers with flights and add-ons, met its January sales targets within the first 10 days of the month.

“We’ve got 900 tours loaded on the system, and a team of six in that department – but will grow it rapidly,” he said. “We’ve timed it really nicely as demand for touring is really coming back."

Applebaum said the operator had been focusing hard on developing recognition of Incredible Journeys, Pure Luxury and Cruise Plus as “specialist brands” rather than “sub-brands”.

"We’re now emphasising that these are four distinct brands for four key segments of the market, with dedicated teams for each of them," he explained. 

Applebaum said overall peaks sales have so far been “phenomenal”, with call volumes hitting levels unseen by the operator since pre-pandemic.

The US has been the stand-out performer for the Gold Medal brand itself, while there has been strong interest in certain destinations that were only just fully reopening after the pandemic.

Applebaum attributed Gold Medal’s buoyancy in part to more agents moving away from packaging trips themselves. "Some agents have really been burnt by dynamic packaging in the past few years – yes, they might get an extra 3% margin by doing it, but the impact on service levels and their time far outweighs it,” he argued.

He added the operator sees huge potential to help agent partners diversify their own businesses and find new customers.

"We want to be supporting Gold Medal agent partners in going out and finding consumers for luxury product; we want to help to grow the wider cruise market,” he explained. “The travel agent’s long-term future depends on weaning themselves off the seven-night fly and flop."