60 seconds with... Lindblad Expeditions' John Delaney

Q. You joined the business a couple of months ago. What are your ambitions for the brand?

One of the reasons I’ve been brought into the business is because we really want to grow our international sales. More than 90% of our business is US, but there are huge opportunities internationally and my plans are to target the UK market, Canada and Australia.

Q. What are the opportunities in the UK market?

I’m very passionate about the UK and always have been in my past roles (most recently at Seabourn and Windstar Cruises). There’s a real appetite for expedition and it poses such a brilliant opportunity for us. The UK is blinking on my radar screen. Initially my strategy is going to be working with five, six or seven agencies which we’ll hand pick. Then I really want to start building our brand name and brand recognition. We invented expedition and we see the UK as the biggest opportunity for us.

We’re going to invest in this market and we’re going to have boots on the ground. It is a really powerful market with a huge number of outstanding agents who have extremely loyal clientele. I know the value of the trade and the UK market and I’m excited to work alongside agents to build Lindblad’s presence and awareness.

Q. How easy is it for agents to book Lindblad Expeditions currently?

At the moment, they call us to make the booking but soon agents will be able to book via Seaware (the booking platform used by the likes of Azamara, Disney and other cruise brands) so that’s a big step for us and that will happen in February or March.