The operator revealed its plans last week, at an event in London at the release of its annual Travel Trends report.
Mark Duguid, vice president commercial and product management at Kuoni told TTG the change in direction was “a major shift” for the company.
“In January we sold more Europe than the Caribbean or the Far East and this has proved to us there is clearly a place for a short-haul operator in the premium space,” said
He said Italy, Spain and Greece were proving strong, with Mykonos and Santorini just two of the places where Kuoni has expanded by 50% this summer to cope with demand.
Managing director Derek Jones added: “We feature more Europe than I think people realise. We were always thought of as a long-haul tour operator, but we are much more than that – customers are leading this. They tell us where they want us to take them. It will always be tightly curated product of course.”
Speaking at the launch of the Kuoni Worldwide Trends Report 2016, Duguid said cruise also remained a highlight; the best-selling cruise lines for the operator are Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, Star Clipper and Cunard.
“We see our unique angle as being able to blend premium cruise with land experiences – and that seems in line with how the cruise market is developing anyway at the luxury end; 80% of our sales have been balcony category and above. We will be looking for growth in 2016 and new to cruise customers will be a target,” he said.
Africa was another strong performer, with the low rand spurring business, and Kuoni holding high hopes for Kenya now it is back on sale, Duguid said.
“We can trace to the exact week when we saw sales rising as a result of the change in Foreign Office advice,” he added. “We see Namibia as a rising star too, and South Africa has made it onto the top 20 list now with the really low rand meaning such value there. Prices in South Africa are so low for UK guests – an eight-course tasting menu with wine at Nobu in the One&Only Cape Town is costing as little as £27 at the moment. Madagascar is also going very well, with triple digit growth.”
He said honeymoons remained the most important segment for Kuoni, with a quarter of all overall business.
“Honeymoons are around 22% of business and bookings are around £3,000 per person – it’s a great position to be in, with a much earlier booking profile and 34% up for 2017.
“It’s also been really boosted by the John Lewis stores and the relationship we have with them which means Kuoni honeymoons can be added to their gift list service – 42% of the business in the John Lewis on Oxford Street for example is honeymoons.”
But he said potential in Cuba might be being overstated.
“Cuba is on stop sale for the next few months as it is literally sold out. Yes it is fundamentally changing and demand is up, but there just isn’t the infrastructure and rooms to cope,” Duguid said.
He suggested cruise could offer a way around this issue by supplying accommodation inventory, but not as a solution to infrastructure issues on the ground. “People still have to get off the ships and do excursions on the ground,” he said.
He added that Kuoni could also be expanding in wellness travel.
“We also have personal travel experts starting to focus on wellness and we see this could be another area where we grow the number of dedicated specialists - Wellness Holiday Experts could be a thing for us in the near future as interest in this grows among our customers,” he said.
Jones said a similar philosophy could be applied to family travel.
“It’s only around 15% of our business at the moment, but we see a big opportunity there.
“Especially given we have so many parents working in retail and they understand from their own experience what families need. I have five children myself and often wonder why we’re not doing more on this front,” he added.
