Royal Caribbean is ditching early booking discounts in its turn of year campaign.
The two-month £2.5 million What You See Is What You Get campaign will do away with “artificially inflated prices” that allow for large discounts.
Trade partners on Allure of the Seas were the first to be introduced to the campaign today.
Mark Walter, head of sales at Royal Caribbean International, said: “We are now entering a really important phase, in the peak booking months.
“We think it’s time for a change. The campaign is new, it’s refreshing, it’s incredible but it’s also easy to understand, it’s simple and it’s uncomplicated. We have been listening to you and our guests saying just make it simple and easy to understand.
“We want to attract as many new-to-cruise people as possible.”
The line said that its move would end the problem of the early booking deadline being constantly extended, but Anthony Blackmore of cruise365 said he was concerned about the lack of a deadline to drive urgency.
Royal Caribbean responded that the campaign would encourage customers to book before prices go up, and that a lot of work had gone into making lead-in prices as attractive as possible.
The activity will see new TV and radio advertising and a cinema campaign featuring Dreamworks characters from the Shrek movies.
Trade partners were told Royal Caribbean expects to have a 23% market share in the UK this year. Just six years ago it was 10%. The line aims to grow this by a further 4% next year.
Cruise line bosses asked agents to particularly get behind the new Grandeur of the Seas programme out of Palma.
Agents were told there were still 4,000 seats left in their free flights campaign. Many of these are thought to be to Palma and from certain regional airports like Gatwick and Newcastle.
Some agents complained that some regional airports, particularly in the west country were not supported by the campaign and the line promised to review that for the future.