Imagine Cruising hires Tony Roberts Lucy Huxley


Former Princess Cruises boss Tony Roberts has joined Imagine Cruising as the company prepares to start selling its packages through travel agents for the first time. Roberts’ appointment as acting


chief commercial officer marks his return to the cruise sector, where he spent 23 years working for lines including Princess Cruises and Seabourn UK. It is also his first industry job since leaving his position as chief commercial officer of Warner Hotels in June 2024. “It is really exciting to be back


in cruise and with an amazing product,” said Roberts. His appointment at Imagine


Cruising, which is primarily a tour


agents in the “coming months”. He said: “We are building a


B2B strategy, where we’ll take Imagine’s curated products and make those available to trade partners to sell to their audiences and deliver that Imagine experience to a much broader audience than we’re able to reach ourselves.” The bespoke packages will be


Tony Roberts


operator but also has an agency business, comes at a time of “growth opportunities”. This includes a plan to sell all the operator’s packages – the majority of which are “curated” packages – through


A&K aims to build on record sales and grow trade relations


Lucy Huxley


Abercrombie & Kent Travel Group’s new UK chief reported the “largest growth ever” in the company’s trade sales last year and confirmed the trend has continued into 2025. In her first interview since taking


the helm, Debra Fox said agents had underpinned a record start to the year across its three brands. “They have delivered the biggest


contribution to our growth,” she said. “They are critically important to our business – absolutely paramount.” She reported a notable rise in


6 1 MAY 2025


sales through homeworkers but added retail agents continued to play a crucial role. Fox, who replaced Andrew


Burrett as managing director for the UK and Asia-Pacific (APAC) in April, said a key priority for the group was to “continue to focus on and grow our partnerships”, including sales with existing partners and through new business relationships. A&K is now recruiting for a


trade salesperson to cover the north and the Midlands to fill the role previously held by Richard Hey, who left to set up his own representation company in March.


Debra Fox The operator’s customers have


been “skewing slightly younger” in the past few years, revealed Fox, with “a greater number” aged under 65. She said customers aged between


45-55, families and multigenerational groups were “the biggest growth areas” and presented opportunities for agents to explore new sales avenues. Abercrombie & Kent is now


looking to expand its range of product and destinations in a bid to consolidate its growth. The operator plans to explore


sold in the same way as traditional, commissionable cruise packages and will be offered with full price parity. He added: “A lot of agents


will already do things such as cruise-and-stay and an element of packaging themselves. “Our bigger opportunity is to sell


the fully curated tours – the cruise and experience – where everything is included and the relationships


we have with our partners are such that we’re able to create real value that is difficult for others to create on a bespoke or a one-off basis. “It’s about those bucket-list


experiences. Imagine going to an amazing destination, which is what your holiday is all about, but also having an intimate, once-in-a-lifetime experience. “That’s really the ultimate


bragging right: you didn’t just go and see Katherine Jenkins, but you saw her in a clifftop location, and you also enjoyed a fantastic cruise experience and maybe a hotel stay and a fully curated holiday.” Further product will be developed


exclusively for the trade, Roberts added, while the company continues with plans to enter new source markets.


new touring opportunities in South America, in particular Bolivia, as well as the Kimberley Islands in Western Australia. “There is a lot of expansion


coming, which is about [embracing] an adventurous spirit. We are developing products in new regions to deliver growth,” said Fox. She highlighted new themed


culinary and wellness tours, plus lodges in locations such as Moab in Utah, which will offer customers “a new level of adventure”. Fox added that the group’s Cox &


Kings brand would also be expanding its product range for the UK market, spearheaded by new managing director Jennifer Charlton. The expansion follows a rebrand


of Abercrombie & Kent unveiled in February, which the group said was designed to “capture founder Geoffrey Kent’s spirit of adventure”.


Watch the interview with Debra Fox in full at: travelweekly.co.uk/media


travelweekly.co.uk


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