South Australia’s newest retail travel brand made its debut on the Eyre Peninsula this week when two of the region’s best known and longest established travel companies relaunched under a single banner, EP travel.
The new identity replaces two of South Australia’s leading independent travel brands – Travel and Cruise Ceduna and Port Lincoln Travel and Cruise – both members of the award-winning Travellers Choice network.
Travel and Cruise Ceduna has served the small town of Ceduna, set on the shores of Murat Bay, since 1985. Port Lincoln Travel and Cruise, located in the Peninsula's largest city, around 400km south on the shores of Boston Bay, opened just a year later.
Tullie Seneca began working in Travel and Cruise Ceduna back in 1995 and two years later became the agency's owner and manager. Last year she seized the opportunity to expand by acquiring Port Lincoln Travel and Cruise, a company she had long admired.
“Unfortunately, an acute shortage of experienced staff meant the Port Lincoln business has for the past 18 months been operating without a shopfront location," says Seneca.
"We've still seen good growth out of Port Lincoln, particularly through the agency's large corporate clientele. But we were aware of the potential to significantly grow our leisure business if we opened a physical location, providing us with a more prominent position in the community.
"That opportunity recently arrived when a key member of the Travel and Cruise Ceduna team, Ryan Irvine, decided to relocate to Port Lincoln."
Seneca – who will now split her time between Ceduna and the new store on Liverpool Street, Port Lincoln – says the timing was right to develop a new, unified brand.
"Operating two brands, even if both are well known and respected, involves complexity and additional costs in terms of marketing and administration. We can now operate a single website and significantly streamline our promotional activities, helping accelerate our sales growth across the Eyre Peninsula and beyond."
Seneca says the new brand also provides a solid platform for the addition of more physical locations on the Peninsula, whether through organic growth or acquisition.
"We are looking to the future, and the launch of EP travel gives us the ability, if commercial opportunities arise, to seamlessly integrate more locations on the Eyre Peninsula."
Seneca, said the rebranding process was supported from start to finish by the Travellers Choice marketing team, which assisted with everything from the initial concept and brand development through to the creation of logos, storefront signage, the new EP travel website and ongoing marketing support.
"Travellers Choice is always there when its members need assistance, and on this occasion the marketing team lent their knowledge and expertise to ensure the transition to a new brand ran exceptionally smoothly.”