Travel agents who attended last weekend’s Quantum of the Seas launch have been praised for utilising social media to attract more customers.
Speaking at a World Travel Market session discussing the success of the cruise sector in the social media world, marketeer Ann Brine said agents were embracing Twitter with “rich and worthy” content during the launch of Royal Caribbean International’s new ‘smartship’.
She said: “I think the cruise industry is as good as any other industry when it comes to social media. There were agents at the Royal Caribbean event who were on social media posting pictures and videos for their customers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“All the agents who get social and use it were being very sociable. These agents understand their wide market place, whether its families or couples.”
Also speaking on the panel was Phil Nuttall, managing director of The Cruise Village and chair of Clia UK and Ireland’s agent advisory board. He said that when his management team said they needed to start getting into social media he was keen “to do it properly or not at all”.
To achieve that Nuttall employed someone to take control of social media as a full-time job, with a current focus on the river market.
“We are investing in river because more people are talking about it and there’s growth there” he explained.
“There currently isn’t too much content out there about river cruise therefore we can help create the agenda. We are constantly learning all the time about how we can do social media well and properly.
“We will eventually move over to focus on ocean as well.”