The Destination HQ dynamic duo of Kate Traynor and Sophie Anderson are putting the finishing touches on the Melbourne agency’s first ever expedition ship charter, departing Darwin next week.
With 25 years’ experience in group touring and cruising between them, the Luxury Travel Advisors are very familiar with intimately sized groups of between 20 and 30 guests, hosting many departures. Their upcoming charter of Coral Expeditions’ 120-guest Coral Geographer was a massive step forward, requiring them to be heavily involved with the itinerary planning, along with marketing for the voyage, coordinating the activities available to guests, entertainment onboard, charter flights and more.
In partnership with Coral Expeditions, Destination HQ is operating a 16-night voyage from Darwin to Raja Ampat and the Spice Islands, departing on 4 March. Guest numbers have been capped at 96 to provide a more intimate size onboard. They’ve also recruited AFL legend and 7 Mate travel program host, Robert ‘Dipper’ Domenico, as the cruise emcee/entertainer.
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And while the cruise line has its own 18-day itinerary for the Spice Islands, Anderson and Traynor crafted their journey to eliminate days at sea and provide more experiences their clients had told them they are keen to participate in, such as birding, snorkelling, scuba diving and swimming, versus cultural visits.
Destination HQ’s itinerary sails one-way from Darwin to Sarong in West Papua. A charter flight will return guests to the NT capital.
“The goal of the project was to create an itinerary focused on the destination,” Traynor told LATTE.
There was an initial groundswell of bookings when the charter was released to Destination HQ’s database in October 2023, selling the first 20 cabins within six weeks.
“That demand made us very confident,” Traynor said. “We initially thought we’d have no trouble selling this charter to our existing database, comprised of guests who have booked space on group allocations for many years.”
But when the numbers stalled, the duo explored digital marketing, which Anderson said “opened up a whole new world for us.”
Digitial marketing enabled Destination HQ to fill the last of the berths by October 2024. “New clients were calling us, telling us the destination and itinerary had been on their bucket list but no one else was offering anything similar,” Traynor said.
“And now we have an entirely new database of guests that are spread across Australia, rather than limited to Victoria,” Anderson added.
“We’ve found a niche and we’ve been told by other cruisers that there aren’t other agencies offering anything similar.”
The bulk of those new-to-brand clients are from Sydney, Adelaide, from across Queensland and Canberra “in locations we’d never marketed before.” Some of those new clients are already booking other products from the Destination HQ offering. “There’s been a massive flow-on effect,” Anderson added.
“It’s given us the confidence to look at similar future charter projects, which we’ll discuss with our clients to gauge their feedback.”
The success of selling the Coral Geographer charter has seen other expedition cruise lines reach out to the duo.
“We’ve started having conversations with a few companies. We’re keen to launch 2027 but there aren’t many expedition cruise lines that have released firm plans that far out,” Traynor said.
In the meantime, Destination HQ’s Managing Director, Stuart Ingram, has chartered AmaWaterways’ double-width ship, 180-guest AmaMagna, from Prague to Budapest for a future sailing.
Destination HQ is a founding member of FCTG’s Luxury Travel Collection.
