Bentours and MyPlanet offer real experiences

Where better location is there than overlooking Sydney’s stunning Harbour at Milson Point ‘s Aqua restaurant for Bentours to launch their new 2008/9 brochure to a very select group of trade media?

Greg Arnott, Bentours’ MD and Teresia Fors, Sales and Marketing Manager for Bentours and partner organisation My Planet, hosted the extremely pleasant lunch telling The Mole that Bentours is Australia’s leading specialist in travel to Scandinavia.

Where it became complicated is when they explained that Bentours was acquired MyPlanet in 2005.  Then MyPlanet was bought by UK’s First Choice Holidays and then First Choice Holidays and TUI merged……phew, is that exhausting?

The good thing for those of us easily confused is that they continue to trade under the name Bentours, which is trade focussed and MyPlanet which is consumer focussed…….both offering fantastic product

In any case on to the important stuff………..what do they sell?

Well, if you have clients that really want to enjoy “experiential” travel you have to offer them Bentours product, which includes the amazing Gota Canal Steamship Company that operates short cruises between Gothenburg and Stockholm along the Gota Canal ,on classic restored historic vessels that only hold 26 passengers in elegant luxury, with cabins that take you back in time.

Bentours also represents the excellent Hurtigruten shipping operation, which was formerly Norwegian Coastal voyages but is now much more than that and while they still offer the coastal itineraries, which are not really a cruising offering, but more a working vessel that visits masses of small coastal villages and islands and they are great, they also operate cruises to the Arctic and Antarctic and a heap of other experiential destinations.

Greg said that while cruising is their backbone and experiential cruising their niche, they were now expanding their product, in particular in Eastern Europe and Latin America and they also offer river cruising.

He also said, “Our vessels take you to the destination, they are not the destination itself, adding, “Our programmes are really for avid travellers and are also about learning.

The 68 page new brochure is their second in Australia and a quick cruise through it confirms their fulfilment of the company’s objective to explore boundaries where humans can go.

Bentours is also the Australasian GSA for Icelandiar and Viking Line Ferries.

A Report by The Mole