The head of the Australian arm of Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection says the company will continue to look at new markets, but is cautious to surge ahead with more developments. Speaking with Cruise Weekly at the launch of its new Asia 2016 brochure last week, gm Australia John Molinaro revealed India had been on Uniworld’s “blackboard” for around four of five years. “We have a lot of things on the blackboard,” he added, but was unable to disclose further details. “We take a look at what makes sense, what our pax are telling us. “There are several different parts of the world they have told us they wanted to look into and India is one we have acted on.” In India, Uniworld has chartered the 56-pax Ganges Voyager II for 19 departures in 2016. Molinaro told CW that Uniworld weighs up various aspects before making a move into a new region, such as the longevity of interest, through to financial investments, political concerns and whether it is more appropriate to own versus a joint venture or charter. “There is a lot that has to go into sustainability, infrastructure and what the client wants. “I always say we operate on a very different agenda to other cruise lines,” he added. Molinaro criticised operators who enter a destination hastily. “There are a lot of companies that just jump in and do this and jump in and do that. We look at things very, very closely and carefully before we do anything. He stated that Uniworld doesn’t act “irresponsibly” and that it “has to be the right time with the right product”. “There has been some times where we have gone into a new market and haven’t provided the service we wanted, so we got out. “We need to ensure that we can provide the product we stake our reputation on,” Molinaro told CW.
