Thomas Cook is aiming to grow its cruise sales by up to 30% in 2007 by rivalling the service and expertise of cruise club specialists in its stores, call centre and online.
Already the UK’s largest cruise retailer, with 8% of the market, a new Cruise Thomas Cook brand was unveiled this week which it hopes will take its market share to 10%.
Cruise currently accounts for 13% of Thomas Cook’s business and, with growth of 20% this year, the travel giant said it is happy with sales in the premium sector but sees potential in the luxury and value cruise sectors.
The first phase of the Thomas Cook Cruise Academy has seen 6,000 retail staff trained, a first dedicated call centre for cruise has been set up and work is under way developing the cruisethomascook.com website.
Director of tour operations Marc Bennett said the high street was the driving force behind Thomas Cook’s cruise sales, the scale of which had taken many in the company by surprise. The aim is to have specialist cruise co-ordinators in 80% of its retail network by the end of 2007.
“Cruise is very important to Thomas Cook as a distribution business. It’s about 13% of our retail revenue which is huge for a non-core product. We have some very aggressive yet realistic growth plans,” said Bennett.
As well as the new brand Thomas Cook will distribute 300,000 free copies of a new 32-page guide offering advice for first time cruisers and for experienced cruisers.