Princess Cruises has credited strong growth in the UK over the past decade for its decision to expand its 2011 programme in Europe to its biggest ever. The Mediterranean and Scandinavia 2011 programme features seven ships and 106 itineraries, 42 of which are unique to the line and seven of which are new for next year. The line has expanded both its choice of UK departures, with Grand Princess returning to Southampton, and fly-cruise holidays. Pieter van der Schee, head of brand marketing, said Princess was now firmly established as a favourite with a significant number of UK cruisers. He said the line has grown four fold in the UK over the last 10 years, outstripping growth generally in the cruise market. With some lines reigning back on their ex-UK deployments he said the ones that are successfully adding capacity are those with good trade relations. “First of all you need a good quality reliable brand that people are really looking for and you need an extremely good relationship with travel agents. “One of the great successes we have had with Princess is we have come into a market and very steadily grown our business on the back of the satisfaction of customers, not by buying business with low fares. “Our focus in the UK has not changed for the last 10 years. It has been focussed on working with travel agent partners. “We have a relatively small budget compared to our big rivals but I’m convinced that one of the successes behind the Princess brand is the loyalty that travel agents have created.” The 2011 programme goes on sale on April 26, the day before sister line P&O Cruises, and there is an exclusive booking date for Princess Circle past cruisers on April 24.
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