“I remember joining [in 2009] looking up to the managing director Nick Hughes – I’ve always been ambitious, but I’d never have assumed it would be an attainable position.”
But so it proved. Kuoni’s new boss Duguid, fresh from a six-year stint with Der Touristik stablemate Carrier, takes over from Derek Jones – and likes what he sees. “Operationally, the business is in very good shape. It used last year to resize, regroup and retrain. Having been here before it [now] feels like a leaner, more focused business.”
Duguid’s priorities include Kuoni’s trade and product strategies, as well as its retail network, but travel is a romantic endeavour; he’s keen to rekindle the pioneering spirit on which the operator was founded and build on its exclusive product portfolio, one he knows well – after all, he was instrumental in launching it in the first place.
Duguid caught the travel bug in his twenties, repping for Cosmos for five seasons. “I went from Majorca in summer to Bangkok in the winter,” he reminisces. “It was a plum gig – I was hooked from there.” He joined Direct Holidays, part of MyTravel and progressed to head of product before joining Kuoni in 2009 where he eventually headed up commercial.
It was in 2017 the managing director role at Carrier came up. “That’s just not an offer you turn down,” he says. “I loved my six years there. It was a tough decision to leave, but I felt my work at Carrier was done. It’s now in a very strong place.
And just like with the Carrier offer, Duguid says being offered the top job at Kuoni was one he “couldn’t turn down”. “It’s been a wonderful return. I know the business and the people. I understand this business and its values.”
Values underpinned Duguid’s tenure at Carrier; it’s where he learnt the importance of strong company culture. “Being a people-focused business that invests in, develops and retains its people has proven more critical than ever coming out of Covid into this challenging recruitment environment,” he explains.
“That mindset I bring with me. Last year, Kuoni was named best large travel company to work for by Best Workplaces in Travel, so there’s no need for transformation. But there are always things to learn and ways to develop. At Carrier, I had the opportunity to build a new vision and strategy for the business, and unite everyone behind it. It’s a model I know works; it’s incredibly powerful.”
It was also at Carrier Duguid gained a new-found and self-confessed “love” for the trade, with the deep relationships he forged set to be a legacy of his time there. “I appreciate that channel more than ever,” he tells me. “I see nothing but opportunity for Kuoni and the trade.”
Kuoni scaled back its trade operation during the pandemic, but Duguid is committed to “picking things up” after soliciting feedback from his agent contacts. “There are three things they’re looking for,” he tells me. “The first is intent – are you genuinely pro-trade? Are you going to support agents? Are you going to make agents’ lives easier?
"The second is having the right systems and processes, and the third is ensuring Kuoni is visible and accessible to the trade – is it out there building relationships? This is where Kuoni pulled back during Covid, and is where we’re seeing the effect now. I’d encourage any agent keen to work with Kuoni to pick up the phone. Our call waits are under two minutes, that’s a given here.
"I think the way Kuoni looked after customers during Covid was well understood. It had very customer-focused policies, refunded without quibble, and didn’t put agents in difficult situations.”
By Duguid’s own admission, Kuoni’s agency sales team is small and lacks visibility. “We will bolster that team to allow us to be more proactive,” he tells me unequivocally. And while Kuoni hasn’t been immune to travel’s recruitment challenges, Duguid believes the business is staffed appropriately. “Our people are highly experienced and engaged,” he stresses.
Kuoni’s Indian Ocean focus, meanwhile, will endure under Duguid, although he admits the business has work to do to reclaim its market leader status. “Having been commercial director here, I feel quite attached to the programme. I have no intention of making radical changes or leading a shift away from where we are.
“I’d like to see a bit more innovation – Kuoni was always a pioneering brand, and it’s my ambition to recapture that pioneering spirit in our product, although it’s more difficult in today’s world where little remains unexplored. But tailor-made, long-haul bias, strong Indian Ocean focus, that will all remain.
“There’s fierce competition, which is a good thing. Kuoni is a heritage brand, and was once viewed as the undisputed champion in this space. The reality is that it is a more competitive market. My eyes are wide open. In a large organisation, it’s easy to look inwards rather than out. Coming from a smaller organisation, I’m used to looking horizontally.”
‘Pushing the boat out’
Duguid, in his own words, “spearheaded” Kuoni’s exclusive portfolio, with many of those properties – such as Kuramathi Maldives – still exclusives. “It shows how successful they’ve been,” says Duguid. “We build really strong commercial relationships. It’s still something I firmly believe in. If a desirable product comes up and there’s an exclusivity opportunity, expanding that programme is definitely on the table.”
A strong peaks – “the first where the world was really back on sale” – has served to underline Duguid’s confidence in Kuoni’s portfolio. “We’ve seen double-digit growth year-on-year,” he reveals. “But the increase in average booking value is the key story – we’ve seen double-digit growth there too, to our highest levels ever.
“Yes, prices have gone up, but people have saved and upgraded. The growth is coming in terms of revenue, passenger numbers are broadly similar. There’s a lot of special occasion travel too – people are looking for ways to push the boat out.”
