All Leisure Holidays is investing more than £35 million across its three brands – Swan Hellenic, Voyages of Discovery and Hebridean Island Cruises.
The renamed Voyager, formerly Alexander von Humboldt (pictured here), will become the second ship for Voyages of Discovery and will operate alongside Discovery.
Under the Swan Hellenic brand, Minerva will have a £10 million refurbishment during winter 2011, introducing balconies to 23% of cabins.
All Leisure has also launched a river cruise arm of Hebridean Island Cruises, chartering the 42-berth Royal Crown for four river cruises in 2012 on the Rhine and Danube.
This comes as most of the cruise industry is being cautious due to the economic downturn and the more recent collapse of specialist travel agency Gill’s Cruise Centre in July.
But Roger Allard, executive chairman of All Leisure Holidays, said the group’s target market of over 55-year-olds is growing to 36% of the population and many are looking for something new.
“We need to plan for the future and move forward. We know we’ve got the demand across all the brands,” he said.
The company will not actually increase capacity until 2013 as Voyager will initially take over from Discovery while it undergoes a refurb in 2012.
The two ships will then operate together but with different geographical itineraries.
While Voyager is expected to attract a younger market – more 45 to 55-year-olds – they are still not interested in “surf boards and kids running around”, according to Alan Murray, managing director of Voyages of Discovery.
by Diane Evans
