Swords Travel shared plans to expand into Australia and the US as the luxury agency celebrated its 10th anniversary

Owners Mark and Stuart Sword confirmed they plan to open branches in Sydney and Florida within the next decade, with 25 staff in each store.

They shared the news at an event in Wimbledon on 26 June to mark 10 years since their agency opened. The party was held at a pub across the road from their shopfront.

“I’m so proud of what we’ve done and so proud of what we’ve got,” Stuart told Cruise Trade News.

“We took a massive risk by opening our Wimbledon shopfront and it has totally paid off; there is such a community spirit within our team and we have lovely staff so it’s such a nice place to come and work.

“It has also given us the drive to replicate this in Australia and the US within the next 10 years. We can envision ourselves spending six months in each destination to set the stores up and we hope some of our current staff are keen to jet off and help launch the shops, which would each be composed of 10 employed staff members and 15 affiliate members.”

“We just think we can take something totally different to the two locations and offer a completely unique service.”

When asked what makes Swords Travel different to other agencies, Stuart simply replied: “Us.”

Mark hailed the growth of cruise for the agency, saying sales had doubled year on year. He attributed much of the success to the store’s location in Wimbledon Village as well as the agency’s active push to engage with more niche sectors within the wider cruise industry.

He lauded a recent event the agency hosted in partnership with Aurora Expeditions which yielded huge revenue.

“We wanted this kind of affluent, retired clientelle and this was the perfect location for us to target that,” he said. “We’ve built the shop so nicely with lots of space and a bar so it’s perfect for events.

“Until recently, we’d never done an event focused around expedition cruising, but we did one with Aurora Expeditions where we had around 15 customers come in to enjoy the evening with us. From that, we got back more than £200,000 in sales.

“That has really made us think about focusing on more niche areas of the cruise sector because cruise is absolutely one of our key growth areas, particularly in expedition, and we want to do more on Galapagos as well.

He added: “We’ve engaged more with cruise suppliers recently and we’ve been sending our team on luxury cruises to gain a better understanding of the products out there and year on year our cruise sales have doubled. There truly is a cruise for everybody.”

Stuart confirmed the agency would be taking on a further two affiliate members in the coming weeks. He wouldn’t be drawn on who the new partners are, but he said: “They will be taking on a part of the UK we’re not currently in.”