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Ace 2010: Advantage moots cruise discounting talks

Agents and operators should set up a meeting so they can agree policies to address discounting in the cruise sector and make the selling of cruise holidays more profitable.

That was the view of Julia Lo Bue-Said, leisure director of leading travel agency consortium Advantage Travel Centres speaking in a travel agents’ panel session at the Ace UK Cruise Convention.

Although she did not address how lines could get around accusations of collusion on price, she said agents and operators shared responsibility for the discount culture in cruise.

“There is a responsibility on some retailers to curb the discounting,” she said. “There has to be a way around that [discounting].

“I think we all have a responsibility. We have a lot of new ships in the market  and cruise lines need volume, so they will work closer with retailers that can drive volumes.

Travel Weekly is the official trade media partner of the UK Cruise Convention 2010“It’s a difficult one and I wish we had a solution but I do think there has come a time when we all need to find a solution.”

Although cruise operators pay agents around 10%-15% commission to sell cruises, the discounting in the market means most of that is given away to attract customers with discounts, so many agents survive on single digit margins.

Lines have always said that competition rules in the UK prohibit them from talking to each other or colluding on retail prices.

However, Lo Bue-Said added: “We would really like to see a meeting with some of the larger cruise lines to see how we can work together to make it a more profitable industry.”

Advantage claims its 800 outlets book £200 million worth of cruise bookings a year, although a large proportion of that will be accounted for by its largest cruise members, Gill’s Cruise Centre and Stewart Travel’s Scotland’s Cruise Centre.

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