Express Voyage
Véronique Leduc
March 10, 2010

Sunwing Looking to the Future

 

An Encounter with Colin Hunter

During his stopover in Montreal to perform a few shows, the president of Sunwing Group met with ExpressVoyage.ca to discuss some of the company's burning issues. Sitting by the windows of his hotel room overlooking the city's downtown, Colin Hunter spoke with cool composure about the consequences of the Sunwing-First Choice merger, Sunwing's European future and the year to come. Colin Hunter, the picture of self-confidence both on stage and in business!

Greater Choices thru Alliance

First publicized in September 2009 then finalized in mid-January, the amalgamation of Sunwing Travel and First Choice's Canadian divisions produced several changes in the industry. Evidently, this means greater choice for Sunwing clients, but it also translated into reorganizations within the company. "Things weren't going well for First Choice and the company was experiencing heavy losses," explained Colin Hunter referring to the $20 million loss incurred in the first half of last year. As for Sunwing, its revenues jumped from $30 million to $660 million over the past five years. "We were able to merge with First Choice to provide more choices to our clients: hotels, destinations, and tours, among others," stated Colin Hunter to explain the point of the transaction. "TUI is probably one of the biggest tour operators in the world and I truly believe that this partnership will provide the consumer with new opportunities." For example, he mentions the new partnership with Corsairfly and Riu hotels "very good quality establishments where most are five-star," which are slated to be in effect in three weeks.
Mr Hunter added "Basically, it's a was once my company and now it's mine again!" In truth, Colin Hunter is the cofounder of Adventure Tours, which was purchased to create Signature Vacations.  
Colin Hunter asserted that there were still some aspects to be defined in terms of this merger. For example, he would like to observe how the market in Quebec will react to the Signature brand and to Riu hotels. In fact, for the next season, Sunwing will be publishing two brochures: one devoted to Sunwing products, and the other to Signature products," said Mr Hunter. However, he is confident that Sunwing will have completely finalized all changes related to the transaction by next July.

Sunwing in Europe

The same philosophy applies to Europe: new offers are being developed, but it's still too soon to make them public. For the time being, we know that Nantes will be offered from Quebec as of July and that Paris will be offered as early as May with departures from Montreal and Quebec aboard Corsairfly.
"We still don't know if Sunwing airlines will be offering flights to Europe, but what is certain is that we will have access to airlines that will ensure European destinations," stated enthusiastically Colin Hunter. He then added: "It's our first year in Europe so we'll start slowly and this year, we're too late in the season, but I think that by September or October we'll have a better idea of European destinations from Quebec." These new offerings will allow Sunwing to do business all year 'round as opposed to tour operators offering sun destinations only.

From Businessman …

After the merger, Stephen Hunter, chief operating officer, became CEO for both amalgamated companies, with its head office located in Toronto. Does Colin Hunter want to take some time for himself? Hearing this, he laughs out loud. "I'll stay on as chief executive officer and remain involved in the company!"

… to Crooner

As a crooner, Colin Hunter is now known throughout the province! After performing at the Montreal Jazz Festival, in the Espace Dell'Arte, at the  Cabaret du Capitole in Quebec and in the Saguenay, Lac St-Jean, he is performing tonight and tomorrow night at the Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill downtown, along with Joe Sealy on the piano and musicians Jennifer Bell, Dave Watts and Rich Irwin.