134 REPORT A sector-wide approach to leisure Columbia Group has combined its brands into a single entity, COLUMBIA blue, to help it deliver more efficient operations for its cruise industry clients Maritime services specialist Columbia Group has combined its various business lines and brands under one holding entity, COLUMBIA blue, with the aim of delivering a seamless service offering in the leisure, lifestyle, cruise, ferries, yacht, hospitality and private aviation sectors. Though the existing specialist cruise brands, such as COLUMBIA cruise services (technical and marine management) and COLUMBIA signature (hospitality and hotel operations), will continue to develop their offerings, COLUMBIA blue was created to achieve more synergy across the group. The company aims to deliver more efficient operations and expand its range of solutions, the latest of which is a residential cruise vessel product. “By taking a more fluid and flexible business approach across all COLUMBIA blue brands, we will be facilitating the exchange of new ideas and cross-company opportunities in the maritime leisure sphere,” explains Julia Siebert, managing director of COLUMBIA cruise services (CCS). “We are expecting that new synergies will develop between our teams, enabling our business lines to expand rapidly.” The increasing variety of services offered to passengers, combined with a need for operators to deploy the latest technology in a sustainable way, requires the same amount of flexibility and specialisation from technical management companies as it does in hospitality. To serve its evolving and specialised fleet, CCS has introduced a matrix-based work approach with a subject-matter expert level. This means COLUMBIA cruise services provides expert teams that can help passenger ship operators with the technical management of their vessels
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