Costa Cruises is offering agents the chance to go on the sort of shopping spree that would make Absolutely Fabulous characters Patsy and Eddy green with envy in its most valuable sales incentive for the UK trade.
A VIP day in London in a chauffeur-driven limousine for one lucky agent and a friend, plus vouchers to the value of £10,000 to spend in some of the capital’s top Italian designer stores are up for grabs.
To be entered into the prize draw, being run exclusively with Travel Weekly, all agents have to do is make five bookings with the cruiseline for cruises in the Mediterranean or northern Europe for sailings departing between July 1 and September 30 2007. The bookings must be made between April 1 and June 30.
Chasing a target of increasing UK sales by 67% this year, Costa Cruises’ London office has more than doubled its marketing budget this
year and has said 97% of it will be spent on the trade.
Marketing executive Jonny Stewart said the idea for the sales incentive came from Costa’s home country of Italy where agents are offered Gucci gifts.
“We hope this will generate a lot of interest and a lot of chatter, particularly among travel agents – this is where we really want to make an impact. Anyone should be capable of making five bookings and we hope the prize on offer will encourage them to do so.”
To support the incentive agents will be sent e-mails, faxes and BP Travel Marketing Services mailbags explaining how they can enter and suggesting itineraries they can sell.
UK managing director
Marco Rosa said: “We’re going all out with this incentive to boost our Mediterranean and northern European bookings. As an Italian cruiseline we feel that a shopping extravaganza in big-name Italian designer shops is the perfect incentive for agents.”