Experiences and transportation company Hornblower Group is rebranding its water- and land-based portfolio as City Experiences and growing its offerings through the acquisition of tours and activities operator Walks.
More than 25 existing brands will live under the City Experiences umbrella and be distributed among three categories: City Cruises, City Ferry and City Experiences.
The acquisition of Walks will help City Experiences expand its land-based experience offerings, which include shore excursions, partner-offered experiences, city tours and multi-port packages.
Walks offers more than 100 unique street-level tours across 14 cities including Rome, Venice, Paris and New York. Last April, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Walks launched more than two dozen “Tours From Home,” online replications of what had been in-person walking tours, narrated by some of the company’s 800 guides.
Walks joins additional land-based experience companies such as shore excursion providers Cruising Excursions and ShoreTrips.
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“To support our growing portfolio of world-class water- and land-based offerings, we are thrilled to introduce City Experiences to the world as we continue building upon our heritage as experience providers,” says Hornblower Group CEO Kevin Rabbitt.
“Enabled by technological investments, diversified operations and a single brand identity, we will continue to explore various opportunities and platforms to add to our portfolio of business that will contribute to the company’s growth and future success.”
Brands in the City Cruises division, which encompasses private events, dining cruises and water sightseeing, include Alcatraz Cruises, Boston Harbor Cruises, City Cruises in the United Kingdom, Hornblower Cruises & Events and Statue Cruises.
The City Ferry category includes transportation services across inland and coastal waterways.
“Creating a single brand identity allows us a greater connection between our land and water experiences, focused marketing and sales efforts, increased guest recognition of our collective City Experiences offerings and ultimately easier cross-selling of our portfolio within cities and between global destination markets,” says Kristina Heney, City Experiences chief marketing and revenue officer.
“Further, our investment in our intuitive booking platform, Anchor, and a holistic end-to-end digital experience will provide an enhanced guest experience with a new frictionless and personalized journey that will further reinforce our brand promise.”
City Experiences’ latest initiative powered by its Anchor technology is the Official Downtown Experience in New York.
Outside of the City Experiences portfolio, Hornblower Group will continue to operate an Overnight Cruise Division, NYC Ferry and Puerto Rico Ferry systems, other government transportation services and its Anchor ticketing services for third-party vendors.
Hornblower Group’s footprint spans 111 countries and territories and 125 U.S. cities; it serves more than 17 million guests annually.