| Avalon Waterways lifts market share

Avalon Waterways says a strong
2012 performance has seen it
take business from its rivals.
AVALON marketing manager Christian
Schweitzer is champing at the bit for the
release of the 2011 International Cruise
Council Australasia statistics at the end of Apr.
That’s because he wants to see how big the
river cruising business was out of Australia last
year, and confirm expectations that Avalon has
“taken a greater bite of that pie”.
Speaking at a Sydney function to launch the
Avalon 2013 brochure yesterday, Schweitzer
and md Stewart Williams were bullish about
the brand’s success which has seen Australian
cruisers experience its product in ever greater
numbers, with a 40% boost in business over
the last 12 months (see today’s Travel Daily).
The growth has followed the very strong
debut of the Avalon Panorama in May 2011.
Williams said that the market had now
moved beyond what he called the “balcony
wars” between rivals Scenic and APT, with
Avalon carving out its own territory with a
“modern, contemporary product” at a lower
price point where passengers choose what
activities they want to undertake.
As well as larger cabins and “open air
balconies” (large glass sliding doors with a
railing), Suite Ship features include a cappucino
machine for that post-excursion caffeine fix.
MEANWHILE Williams also expressed
interest in possibly offering an Australasian
small ship cruising product “in due course”.
“There may be an opportunity in which we
start dabbling in that arena,” he said, saying
cruises around Australia and to Antarctica
would be “quite a nice area to look at”.
“It’s a particular product that would fall into
our niche,” he said, with the Globus Family
already offering the Galapagos and Mekong.
More from Avalon on page three.