Agency chiefs to ‘double down’ on cruise amid geopolitical uncertainty

Agency leaders have highlighted “a real opportunity” to promote cruise sales amid geopolitical uncertainty and cost-of-living concerns.

Speaking at the annual Clia Conference in Southampton, leaders from Hays Travel, Barrhead Travel and World Travel Holdings UK spoke about the impact of the Middle East conflict and future plans to continue growing their cruise businesses.

Dame Irene Hays, owner of Hays Travel, said that average booking windows had shortened from seven to four months since the start of the Iran war, adding: “The situation has got even shorter and there is a real opportunity for cruise even this year for those savings.

“I think it’s absolutely vital travel agents support the cruise market and there are some fabulous prices and cruises out there.”

Hays said the group had since “doubled down” on its investment in cruise marketing to make this “equal to if not greater than” short-haul and long-haul.

She added cruise had been “consistently supported by customers”, while bookings for destinations such as Dubai, Doha and the Emirates “went off a cliff” and the US and Caribbean were slowly “recovering”.

Looking ahead, Hays said she wanted the agency to be “disruptive and innovative”, teasing more initiatives similar to its deal with Cruise.co.uk and Oceania Cruises to charter a full ship for six voyages next year.

She called on cruise lines to give “deep and profound and immersion” beyond a ship visit to help agents sell “the personality and characteristic of each ship”.

Hays said the company would spend a third of a million on “bite-sized supercharge sessions” to help its agents match the right customer to the right brand.

She also recommended new-to-cruise agents “get to know three or four cruise lines well” and sell ex-UK cruises to begin with.

Lisa McAuley, World Travel Holdings UK managing director, said the group, which owns Cruise118 and Six Star Cruises, has been “trying to get people to book further out” to 2027 and 2028 through better packaging.

However, she said: “Because of the amount of inventory that is left in the market, we will absolutely double down on the lates market as well. It is making hay while the sun shines.”

She also said there were “some price points” in the luxury cruise market this year which are “absolutely phenomenal”, even though typically booking windows “tend to have a much longer lead in by default” because of higher fares.

“We have a high proportion of new-to-brand coming to us from a price point of view [for luxury], and the challenge will be how sticky they are when the prices go back up again,” she said.

While price can be a strategy to “hook” a customer, McAuley encouraged agents to “avoid transactional relationships” and “get better at storytelling” interweaving personal experiences to secure loyal cruise passengers.

Looking ahead, McAuley said World Travel Holdings’ new investment by a private equity firm had “accelerated” its three-year strategic plan and was “testament to the excitement and growth and opportunity” in the industry.

She expected growth in luxury to continue to outpace mainstream and said the business was developing a dedicated expedition brand, the launch of which had been delayed due to the MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak.

Barrhead Travel managing director Nicki Tempest-Mitchell said she was “very pleased with how this year has played out” for cruise, with all sectors “performing well” and new-to-cruise and the family segments coming through “very strongly”.

She said river and luxury sales had grown around 40% year on year, in part driven by the company’s first river charter on APT in August, while expedition was also “starting to see some significant growth”.

Tempest-Mitchell highlighted “real growth” in the 20-to-30 market, while the biggest volume came from those aged 50-plus.

She said the agency had changed its strategy over the years to move away from having a cruise specialist in every branch, to making sure all staff had cruise training and knowledge, which was a “challenge” give the fast pace of enhancements across the sector.

“We probably over-index on training within our business on cruise versus other sectors because of the sheer developments of the product,” she said.

She added the agency, including franchise network Brilliant Travel, had “big growth plans” for the next five years and wanted to particularly focus on expedition, luxury and river.

She called on cruise lines to “continue to invest” in getting agents on board to help with sales, offer “better content for TV” to help agencies with their marketing and run fewer flash sales to give third-party sellers “more time to embed and tell the story to customers”.