NEWS — HOT STORIES 2
From left: Derek Adams and Libby Cookson, Spear Travels; Bryony
Hordern, Tickets Anywhere; and Peter Cookson, Spear Travels
Bryony Hordern sells Tickets Anywhere to Spear Travels
Juliet Dennis and Ian Taylor
Tickets Anywhere owner Bryony Hordern has sold the agency to Spear Travels and will retire at the end of the month after 50 years in travel. Hordern, a former Advantage
director, set up the agency in Thame, Oxfordshire, in 1982. Spear Travels managing
director Peter Cookson said they were all delighted. All four staff will be retained
and Cookson said: “We might recruit another.” Hordern said: “I am 67 and
there is more to life than running a business. It is time to move while the business is going well. “The office runs perfectly without me and will stay exactly as it is, just with a different name. We have the same ethos. The staff will be cherished. People book with the staff.” The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, is Spear’s 10th shop. Cookson said he aimed to have 15 in two years. “We are growing at a sensible rate of one to three shops a year,” he added.
Spear has six branches in North
Yorkshire, one each in Stoke and Wolverhampton, and an agency and head office in Upminster, east London. The group also has 17 homeworkers. Tickets Anywhere began as “a
bucket shop in a lean-to next to a pub”, according to Hordern, who came into travel as a typist at Qantas. “I am privileged
to have been in the industry for 50 years,” she said. “I have been everywhere. But I want to do other things.” Hordern plans
to write a travel memoir after completing a creative travel writing course last year. “I want to remember all the trips I have done, and I would like to meet the people I tell every Christmas ‘We must meet up’ and never do. “I will miss travel. If I was 18
again and knew what my life would be like, I wouldn’t change one minute.” ❯ Letters, page 40
3 Hollie-Rae Merrick
Travel 2 is teaming up with MSC Cruises as part of its plan to bolster its cruise sales and generate more than £10 million in cruise revenue. Andy Freeth, managing director of Travel 2, said the operator
would have a greater focus on cruise this year, coinciding with the launch of new ships pushing the sector further into the spotlight. He added that Travel 2’s cruise revenues had grown from about £1 million a couple of years ago to £6 million last year. “We are looking to focus more on cruise and we have entered into a partnership with MSC Cruises,” said Freeth. “It is a mini joint venture and any fly-cruise packages from regional airports will be sold through us. Last year, we gave cruise a good go. We want more focus on it this year. I think tightening legislation around Atols means more people want to buy a full package – and we will offer them. We are looking at putting 3,000 passengers on MSC.” Speaking about the partnership, Giles Hawke, the cruise line’s executive director, said he believed the deal would help put MSC in front of retailers that may not have
worked with the line before. The tie-up between the two brands comes as Hawke said his line’s new experience-based pricing was helping to bring “price integrity” back into the cruise market by ensuring early bookers were never undercut. He claimed that not all lines had the same integrity to push pricing, and pledged that in a lates market, MSC would now discount only its most basic Bella packages. “Several lines said MSC’s new ships wouldn’t be good for the market
but we are improving net yields and getting stronger,” said Hawke. As Travel 2 looks to drive cruise sales, franchise-based GoCruise
reported a record 2014, with a 25% year-on-year rise in bookings. ❯ GoCruise conference, page 12
15 January 2015 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 5
L CRUISE
Andy Freeth and MSC Armonia
Travel 2 eyes £10m in cruise sales following MSC tie-up
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“We are looking at
putting 3,000 passengers
on MSC”
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