p28 cruise sep19 16/9/08 16:18 Page 28
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Crystal Cruises to
boost sales team
HAL seeks capacity to
CRYSTAL Cruises plans to further strengthen its
links with the trade this year by growing its
expand its UK sailings
on-the-road sales team.
The luxury operator won the small cruise line
of the year award, for operators with fewer than
Lee Hayhurst.
75,000 UK customers. HOLLAND America Line is to operate new UK
Sophie Higgins (below), UK sales and market- mini-cruises to capitalise on the profile gained in
ing manager, said the line wanted to focus on the UK this year during inaugural celebrations for
agents who specialise in luxury travel that do not its newest ship Eurodam.
yet proactively sell Crystal. Speaking after she picked up the TTG Travel
The line has a sales team of just five people Award for best supplier sales team, Lynn Narraway
in the UK but will increase that to give more (right), UK sales and marketing director, said
coverage all over the UK, Higgins said. additional capacity was key to the success.
She added one of the most important innova- She hopes Holland America Line’s bosses in
tions this year was bringing in online booking Miami will give the go-ahead for a four-night
engine Cruise Builder and web training. ex-UK cruise on Eurodam in July 2009 as well as major events in the UK within 10 days: inaugural
“Winning this award was a major achievement two three-night UK-Copenhagen mini-cruises. celebrations for Eurodam in Southampton, and
and I hope we won It has already been confirmed sister line Car- the official naming of Carnival Splendor in Dover.
because of our com- nival will double ex-UK capacity next year when “We had 6,000 people within two days on
mitment to the trade. Carnival Liberty starts operating out of Dover. two ship launches and we had to give each
We will grow our sales The UK market will also have double the ca- brand 100% focus,” Narraway said.
team by 25% and focus pacity for Carnival’s programme out of Barbados. The judging panel struggled to decide between
on agents that are not Narraway said the focus on the UK had the entries from Carnival and Royal Caribbean,
proactive,” she said. enabled the operator to start working with some which was highly commended. But in the end it
Hurtigruten was of the UK’s largest agents, such as Bolsover felt Carnival’s sales team was settled, dedicated
highly commended in Cruise Club and Ideal Cruising. and had shown its innovative approach was
the category. The UK office was also responsible for two achieving results albeit from a small base.
Noddy helps
CCS scoop TTG
Travel Award
COMPLETE Cruise Solution’s trade marketing
focus will remain on its newest ship, Ventura, for
2009 as it seeks new customers.
The trade arm of P&O Cruises, which
welcomed the 3,000-passenger ship into its fleet
in April, last week scooped a TTG Travel Award
for best trade marketing campaign.
Giles Hawke, CCS sales director, said the
campaign targeted the ship, the largest built
for the UK market, at a new audience, not
seasoned P&O customers.
Many of these customers did sail on the ship
during its inaugural ex-UK season but the certainly our focus is going to be on Ventura. aspects of the ship were used to engage a broad
evidence is they are returning to their favourite That’s where the opportunity is going to be,” range of agents.
P&O ships next year. Hawke said. One element of the CCS campaign was a “Find
“We need to continue to talk to newcomers. Children’s favourite Noddy helped CCS clinch Noddy” email competition that encouraged
We are looking at what we do in 2009 but the award. And the judges said they liked how agent to take a virtual tour of the ship.
28 19.09.2008
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