EXPERIENCE BUYS INTO PREMIUM TOURISM
UNPARALLELED numbers of cashedup premium tourists have prompted adventure tourism operator, Experience Co, to expand its portfolio in the sector.
The Asx-listed company has purchased Wild Bush Luxury, an operator of premium experiences in South Australia and the Northern Territory, as well as Tasmania’s famed
The Maria Island Walk. The businesses cost Experience Co $4.3m and could rise to $5.3m over two years under earn-out arrangements.
Billing itself as the world’s largest operator of tandem sky jumps, Experience Co claims to have the youth market cornered and now wants to tap the premium domestic dollar — principally cashed-up over50s. “I think the premium sector will be one of the more robust parts of the sector once we come out of COVID,”
Experience Co chief executive John O’sullivan said.
Mr O’sullivan, who also operates Australia’s second-largest reef business in Cairns, said he was looking for more acquisitions.
“This is the start of diversifying the business,” he said. “We are now going into a more domestic-facing business, they are over-50s, and these businesses are geographically in parts of the country where we don’t have operations.”
Wild Bush Luxury comprises the Arkaba Walk and Homestead in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges and Bamurru Plains in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory.
The vendor was Charlie Carlow who will join the Experience Co business.
The Maria Island Walk was bought from founder Ian Johnstone who began the business in 2003.
Experience Co shares closed up 1.5c at 28c.