NEWS 1
G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip
YOU NEED TO KNOW
AT A GLANCE
History of the brands PAGE & MOY
1962: Founded. Specialises in taking sports car fans to the 24-hour race at Le Mans
1993: An MBO sees private equity firm 3i invest £1.6 million
2004: Sold to Travelsphere in a deal valuing it at £30 million
2012: All Leisure Group buys Page & Moy Travel Group (Travelsphere, Page & Moy and Just You) for £4.2 million. Page & Moy renamed Travelsphere
SWAN HELLENIC
1950: Founded as specialist in antiquities tours of Greece
Page & Moy and Swan Hellenic to be relaunched
Lee Hayhurst and Robin Searle
Much-loved heritage travel brands Page & Moy and Swan Hellenic are to be relaunched “within a year” by their owner G Adventures.
The Canadian touring and
adventure operator acquired the brands in an auction after buying the assets of failed operator All Leisure Group, which collapsed in January 2017. G Adventures founder Bruce
Poon Tip revealed plans to revive the brands in his acceptance speech as he was inducted into the British Travel & Hospitality Hall of Fame on Monday. Speaking at the event and
also at a Travel Weekly Business
Breakfast on Tuesday, he said: “We’ve done market research on both brands in the UK and the results were off the scale. “There’s obviously a huge
amount of affection and awareness still for both brands, especially Page & Moy, and it is our intention to bring them back.” Poon Tip said the brands would
not return in their previous form, and confirmed G Adventures did not have any aspirations to launch a cruise brand. He added: “Whatever we do,
it will be something that’s never been done, and that’s why we will take our time to carry out further research and make our decision. “We won’t be going after the
cruise market or recreating Page & Moy as it was – we don’t follow what other people are doing.
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travelweekly.co.uk 3 May 2018
“We’ve done market research in UK on both brands and the results were off the scale”
“We see this [and the acquisition
of Travelsphere/Just You] as a great opportunity to see if our philosophy will work in a more traditional part of the industry.” Poon Tip said G Adventures
would continue to pursue an ambitious acquisition strategy while growing organically, with a focus on increasing its luxury and boutique offering and the vertical integration of the business. “We will double in size in the
next three or four years through organic growth,” he said. “And I believe we can double
1983: The specialist cruise line is bought by P&O and later becomes part of Carnival Corp
2007: Former P&O chairman Lord Sterling buys the brand and it joins All Leisure Group
that again through acquisition. “We want to really own the
group space, and we see a great opportunity in the luxury and boutique sectors where we are currently under-represented.” He added: “We will also look to
•Poon Tip was one of four travel leaders inducted into the Hall of
vertically integrate, whether that is into hotels or lodges. We now have the brand to be able to do that.”
Fame, alongside former Momondo Group chief executive Hugo Burge, former UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai and Deloitte global leader for travel and aviation Graham Pickett. The event, hosted by Travel Weekly and its sister brand The Caterer, also recognised the best young entrepreneurs and
managers in the sector. › Hall of Fame 2018, page 8
PICTURE: STEVE DUNLOP
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