Launched in 2008 with business partner Claus Jensen, MyCruise sales director Nicki Olsen has been ready to expand the firm’s operations to the UK for the past few years.

"We were just waiting for the right person – and then we met Sam," Olsen told TTG. "We’ve been looking at the UK for many years, but it’s all about timing. We needed the right person who was up to the task and could fulfil the same strategy we have employed in Europe."

Olsen revealed that after expanding MyCruise to Sweden and Norway from its headquarters in Copenhagen, attentions turned to the UK, only for the brand’s launch to be scuppered by a combination of the pandemic and Brexit.

Several years on, Redfearn – whose objective is to transform the brand into a household name in the UK – will lead the charge by emulating the successful strategy Jensen and Olsen have implemented across European sub-sections of the business.

"We want to be up there fighting with the big boys as soon as possible," Redfearn told TTG. "These are big ambitions, but I’m confident in the product and what we can achieve."

Redfearn will combine use of MyCruise’s online booking tools with the "personal touch" it can offer through the company’s dynamic packaging offering to build the brand’s reputation in the UK, with a specific focus on targeting the new-to-cruise market and younger travellers.

"It’s about bringing what they’ve managed to do in Denmark, Sweden and Norway to the UK market," Redfearn said. "The team is extremely focused on the tech side of things, and I think that’s what is missing in some cruise agencies in the UK."

MyCruise UK will initially target younger clientele versed in online booking processes, while retaining the security of having agents on the end of the phone, where needed.

Based in Southampton, Redfearn’s first task will be to build a team of sales enthusiasts to help him expand the company throughout the UK. "I’d like to take on one salesperson in the next couple of weeks and then another by the end of the year, and then grow the team from there as the business expands," he explained.

With an initial focus on ocean cruise, the agency will lean on relationships it has forged with lines in Europe to "hit the ground running in the UK" before expanding operations to river, expedition and luxury cruising in the future.