As an ex-travel agent, I admit that I was always the kind of customer a travel consultant probably loves to hate. Someone who always strived to find a holiday that ticked multiple boxes - number one: I wanted something off the beaten track; two: something that made me feel like a traveller rather than a tourist; three: a trip that was individual and tailor-made; four: the opportunity to sample local food, drink, culture. Oh and if you could make it good value, that would be great, please.

The list was endless. But for many years we enjoyed some incredible holidays – wilderness camping in the Rockies; island-hopping around Indonesia; trekking in Northern Thailand; a rail tour around Vietnam. I confess though, a cruise was never something I considered. I believed the many common misperceptions, and I never considered that my holiday demands could be satisfied by holidaying on a ship.

It was with trepidation then that my family and I embarked on our first taster sailing from Venice to Corfu onboard Silver Spirit; it took us about three hours before all three of us were hooked.
Three years later, I have sailed around Central America; voyaged in the Caribbean; cruised around the Med, and earlier this year achieved my bucket list dream of experiencing the Galapagos, onboard Silversea’s expedition ship. I just wish we had discovered cruising earlier.

The sector has evolved dramatically over the past 10 years. There is more choice, more variety and more capacity than ever before and at Silversea we are keen to continue this evolution. We recognise that people have different needs and so we have taken a close look at our current guests – as well as the future guests we want to attract – through the launch of the Couture Collection, a series of ocean and land adventures custom-designed for the most discerning travellers.

The collection is an extension to the 950 destinations we already offer. It will launch with nine programmes in 2018, all of which will offer immersive travel experiences in the most remote and untouched regions of the Earth. After all, the world still has plenty of secrets to discover away from the coast.

The next step for us as a team is to ensure that our travel agent partners are completely immersed in this strategy and to help them find us those new-to-Silversea guests. We really do believe that this venture into land options will open up the world of cruise to a different audience – many of whom may never have considered cruise before. The baby boomer segment is key to the growth of Silversea and we know this group requires more authentic, true and deeper experiences – they do not want to see the world from the window of a bus.

This article was written prior to Lisa McAuley’s appointment to dnata Travel where she is now managing director, tour operations, B2B Europe