Carnival UK will make a significant change to its trade sales structure next year breaking up its Complete Cruise Solution team to create a dedicate resource for Princess Cruises.
The move was announced today onboard P&O Cruises’ Azura during the UK Cruise Awards by Carnival UK sales and customer services director Giles Hawke.
It comes as Princess Cruises forges an increasingly distinct agent offering in the UK and the appointment of its first country director Paul Ludlow in 2011.
Both sales teams will report into a head of sales, the position having been newly created for Princess Cruises.
Chris Truscott, will take up the P&O Cruises Cunard head of sales role when he joins from Pernod Ricard early in the new year, reporting into Hawke.
An appointment has yet to be made for the Princess role but that person will report into Ludlow.
The creation of a dedicated Princess sales team in March next year does not mark the demise of CCS, the umbrella brand which originally comprised of four lines when Ocean Village was in business.
Agent extranet, completecruisesolution.com, will continue to offer booking and training services for all three brands, and will continue to receive significant investment, Carnival confirmed.
A spokeswoman said it was not known what the joint P&O Cruises Cunard sales team will be called or what the impact on jobs would be.
Hawke said: “This change recognises the importance of each brand’s market position and product differentiation.
“As each brand evolves, their subsequent distribution and marketing solutions vary and this structure will enable more dedicated resource to work with our agent partners to fulfil those needs.
“The Complete Cruise Solution sales team has driven a significant increase in cruise business through many agents in this country over a number of years.
“Now is the time to underpin that solid foundation, encourage a new generation of cruisers and build on that growth to further commercial success.
“The introduction of two sales teams will increase the internal resource available to maintain the current high standards of travel agent support and encourage unrivalled business partnerships.
“It will drive business growth and extend the marketing to the benefit of each of our three cruise lines and their agent partners.”
Ludlow said: “I am excited about the opportunity to have a dedicated Princess Cruises sales team working with our agent partners with a clear focus on promoting the Princess brand, especially with the launch of Royal Princess next summer.
“We will continue to work very closely with our sister brands to ensure that we are joined up and all adding value to travel agents.”
Hawke added: “All three brands are committed to continued commercial collaboration to provide a consistency of approach and to creating new sales organisations capable of delivering exceptional account management for mutual benefit. This new structure will deliver that promise.”