LAST year’s acquisition of Crystal Cruises by A&K Travel Group provides significant opportunities for both brands, according to A&K’s global CEO Cristina Levis. The value and strength of the Crystal name is “undeniable”, Levis told CW on board Crystal Serenity overnight, and paves the way for major ambitions upon which...
LAST year’s acquisition of Crystal Cruises by A&K Travel Group provides significant opportunities for both brands, according to A&K’s global CEO Cristina Levis.
The value and strength of the Crystal name is “undeniable”, Levis told CW on board Crystal Serenity overnight, and paves the way for major ambitions upon which A&K aims to capitalise by investing heavily in markets around the world, including Australasia (CW yesterday).
However “only a fool would believe that we could survive with Crystal with just two ships,” Levis said, confirming expectations that the company’s Executive Chairman, Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio (pictured), is likely to announce more capacity in the coming days.
Levis has a strong background in expedition cruising, having formerly headed up Silversea Expeditions when it was owned by Lefebvre, and she said for A&K the synergies with Crystal’s customer base were strong.
Alongside any plans for growing the fleet, A&K will also continue to operate its own expeditions in partnership with Ponant “for the foreseeable future,” Levis told CW.
She said that while the collapse of Crystal’s former owner Genting Hong Kong had impacted the Crystal brand, “we never even thought about rebranding” because of its strong goodwill.
Levis said Crystal’s “Exceptional Initiative” under which the line’s new owners compensated guests and their travel advisors who had lost money in the line’s collapse (CW 27 Mar) had been highly successful, with almost 1,500 credit certificates issued so far and thousands more in the offing.
“This was a very positive reaction to something we didn’t have to do, but we wanted to do it,” Levis added.
