Former Monarch Group chairman Hugh Morgan plans ?to grow Cosmos Tours and Cruises “substantially” with the help of agents.
Morgan has come out of retirement to act as executive chairman of Cosmos Tours after stepping down from Monarch more than a year ago following its restructure and sale to Greybull Capital by long-time owners the Mantegazza family.
He was sought out by Fabio Mantegazza, who retained control of Cosmos Tours as part of the family’s Globus travel group, and asked to return after Monarch announced on October that it was dropping the Cosmos brand.
Morgan told Travel Weekly: “It’s a fantastic product in a really growing sector of the market. The over-55s market is worth in excess of £1.3 billion and it’s going to get more attractive. This business offers good average selling ?prices, so if we just grab 1% ?or 2% of market share it’s a lot ?of revenue.”
He insisted there is no intention to build Cosmos as a mainstream package-holiday brand, saying: “There are enough people fighting in that space.”
But he said: “The trade is going to be our focus. We want to up the profile of the company and get the product in front of agents. We’re looking for their support. It’s good money for them. This isn’t £240 a holiday – it can be up to £3,000. Agents are the people who will drive this business forward.”
Former Avro managing director Michael Vinales has also joined from Monarch to oversee aviation buying. He and Morgan join Cosmos Tours managing director Alan MacLean, product and commercial director John Fair and customer operations director Lesley Taylor.