SILVERSEA is targeting Southern Australia as one of its next potential expedition destinations, Senior Vice President Expedition, Destinations, & Itinerary Management Conrad Combrink has revealed.
Speaking exclusively to travelBulletin, Combrink revealed himself and his line as admirers of South Australia, and the country’s southern coastline, which he believes holds great potential as an expedition destination.
“We would definitely like to do more, especially in expedition,” he said.
“We do a lot on the west coast, we do basically everything from Darwin to Fremantle, but I think South Australia has a huge opportunity,” Combrink added.
“It’s one of those destinations Australians want to travel to.”
Locals are still Silversea’s key source market for its Australian product, Combrink revealed, although the cruise line is working on evening this metric out to a fifty-fifty split.
“We started operating [in the Kimberley] in 2014 and interestingly enough, it was predominantly Australian, and now we’re seeing more and more American, Brits, European clientele coming to the Kimberley.
“Kimberly is still predominantly Australian for market for us, but we’re also developing it outside of Australia, and we see a really good response… there’s definitely a bigger awareness outside of Australia,” he added.
“At one stage, we’re certainly hoping it will be more equal in terms of the source market.”
Australia manages a lot of heavy lifting for Silversea’s expedition product generally, not just the Kimberley, Comrbink added.
“We rely heavily on this source market for expedition…it is incredibly important for Silversea overall, but specifically with expeditions, it’s our second-biggest source market after the United States,” he divulged.
