Swan Hellenic will relaunch next year
Canadian soft adventure operator G Adventures has acquired the Swan Hellenic and Voyages of Discovery cruise brands from the All Leisure Group, which collapsed last month.
Administrators Grant Thornton said the sale included the brand names and intellectual property, but not the ships.
G Adventures issued a statement this afternoon saying it would relaunch Swan Hellenic in 2018, but it said it didn’t intend to revive the Voyages of Discovery brand ‘at this time’.
In the statement, it said Swan Hellenic was a 60-year-old ‘pioneering’ UK cruise line and ‘respected name in the boutique cruising sector’.
These are the latest All Leisure brands acquired by G Adventures, which took over its escorted tours Just You and Travelsphere programmes shortly before the company ceased trading in early January.
"The UK is the largest global outbound market for G Adventures and acquiring Swan Hellenic further diversifies G Adventures’ portfolio of brands, adding boutique small ship cruising to its existing adventure travel, adventure cruising, and new touring businesses," G Adventures said in a statement.
Vice president of global sales John Warner added: "We know how beloved Swan Hellenic is to its loyal customer base and respect it has in the British travel community.
"Our long-term aim is to re-launch Swan Hellenic and re-establish the award-winning values that make it so well-loved."
G Adventures plans to restart the operation of Swan Hellenic in 2018. Itineraries will be announced this summer. It cancelled its last cruise in early January due to All Leisure’s financial woes.
Eddie Williams of administrators Grant Thornton said he was ‘in the middle of negotiations’ with parties interested in buying Voyages of Discovery’s one ship, Voyager. Swan didn’t own any ships, having chartered Minerva from a third party.
Williams said last month that All Leisure’s cruise operations had been ‘significantly loss making over a number of years’.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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