Seabourn has launched a 30th anniversary global trade engagement campaign including events on board its new luxury ship Seabourn Ovation.
The line will launch 600-berth Ovation in May, increasing its fleet to five vessels in its landmark year.
Seabourn will host ship visits for agents on Ovation in Liverpool, Dover, Newcastle and Dublin in September before the ship sails to Asia for the winter after its maiden summer season in the Baltic and the Norwegian fjords.
On land, around 300 agents are to attend 10 partner appreciation events at Everyman Cinemas across the country this month. The events feature a presentation about Seabourn, information about the line’s trade tools and a meal.
Lynn Narraway, Seabourn’s UK and Ireland managing director, said the partner appreciation events and ship visits aimed to give agents, who account for 90% of Seabourn sales, “a helping hand”.
“It is about making agents feel special and also about them telling their customers they will feel special on board,” she said.
Ten agents have been invited on Ovation’s shakedown cruise on April 29 from the Fincantieri shipyard in Genoa to Venice.
Seabourn has teamed up with Travel Weekly to offer agents the chance to win 30th anniversary prizes, including theatre tickets or Molton Brown products.
To win, agents must explain in 30 words why they would recommend a customer sails with Seabourn. Winners will be contacted by the end of May. Enter at 30YearsOfSeabourn.com.
For information about Seabourn’s 2018 ship visits, email salessupport@seabourn.co.uk
Seabourn’s UK boss calls for luxury sector to keep on ‘delivering’
Passengers sailing with luxury lines such as Seabourn will “expect more experiences and more special journeys” on land and at sea over the next 30 years.
The prediction about cruise passengers’ expectations was made by Lynn Narraway, Seabourn’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, as she revealed plans to mark the line’s 30th anniversary.
“From what I have seen in the last 30 years, the luxury traveller is going to expect more experiences and more special journeys on land as well as at sea,” she said.
“We need to make sure that we are delivering, not just when they are on our ships, but also delivering these amazing experiences on land.”
Narraway highlighted the Seabourn Journeys programme, which offers 10 escorted pre and post-cruise excursions, six of which visit Unesco World Heritage Sites, curated by supplier Abercrombie & Kent.
Narraway added there were opportunities for Seabourn’s retail partners that “do not package their own holidays” to offer journeys to destinations such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the South Pole.