Discover Benelux | The Inspiration Guide | A Fabulous Honeymoon
Escape across the border TEXT: MARTIN PILKINGTON | PHOTOS: VOYAGES ORION
For many in Belgium wanting to go on holiday or a honeymoon, it is far easier to fly from Cologne or Dusseldorf, rather than Brussels. Voyages Orion, based in the German-speaking part of the country, makes a speciality of precisely these options. When David Bocher established Voyages Orion in 2009, it was a one-man operation. Within a year, he had taken on his first employee, and now the company has three busy offices – in Eupen, St Vith and Calamine – and a total of 16 employees. It is a full-service operation, but Orion’s trump card is using the facilities and economies of scale offered by 20 | Issue 58 | October 2018
near-neighbour Germany for the benefit of its Belgian clients.
Better logistics “Our main office is only 12 kilometres from the German border, and for people in this area and indeed much of Eastern Belgium, the logistics of flying from, say, Cologne or Dusseldorf, make more sense than struggling across to Brussels,” says David. That is far from the only benefit, too. “The German travel market is huge, Europe’s biggest,” he continues, “and consequently, the prices are more competitive, and the range of options far wider than a relatively small country like Belgium can offer.”
All of David’s staff members are bilingual, to facilitate communications with French, Flemish and German-speaking Belgian clients, but also to smooth their daily dealings with major tour operators and flight providers in Germany, with whom over the last nine years they have built up excellent relationships.
Honeymoon travel The company has particular strengths in the cruise market, package holidays, and in the very demanding honeymoon sector. “Honeymoons are a major part of our business,” David adds, “with my colleague Caroline Kleutgen who is a real specialist in that part of the business.”