Dubrovnik this summer due to the war in Kosovo (Travel Weekly June 28).
UK managing director Graham Smith admitted Festival had been hit by the Balkan conflict, saying: “In April bookings came to a complete stop. Some people didn’t like us changing our base to Genoa and we lost 200 bookings out of the UK. But we made them back up again by the end of May.”
Smith said prices on Mistral would not be much higher than those on the rest of the fleet this year, even though Festival regards it as a four-star vessel.
Festival has introduced a special offer on Mistral’s Grecian Treasures cruise this summer, allowing a couple who pay the full brochure price of £1,009 for one person to only £399 for the second person. The offer is based a shared cabin.
Agents are being offered a £70 commission credit as an incentive to book a Mistral cruise between July 17 and October 30.
The credit is paid to them once they have also booked a separate winter cruise on Mistral in the Caribbean.
However, Smith denied that the price cuts and commission incentives were being introduced due to low demand, pointing out that capacity had been tight since Festival’s ship Bolero was chartered to First Choice earlier this year.
FESTIVAL Cruises has issued an advance brochure for 2000 which coincided with a visit to Southampton by its new ship Mistral.
The Festival Preview 2000 was launched to more than 500 agents who toured the vessel on June 29. It sailed to the UK straight after its naming ceremony at St Nazaire, France.
The brochure features 11 and 12-night itineraries on Azur in Eastern Europe from £795. A five-night Mediterranean cruise stopping in Malta and Tunis leads in at £595.
Festival’s Flamenco will carry out a series of one-week cruises to the Baltic and Norwegian fjords starting at £725.
The company plans to use Venice as a base instead of Genoa and reintroduce Dubrovnik as a destination next year. It avoided Venice and Dubrovnik this summer due to the war in Kosovo (Travel Weekly June 28).
UK managing director Graham Smith admitted Festival had been hit by the Balkan conflict, saying: “In April bookings came to a complete stop. Some people didn’t like us changing our base to Genoa and we lost 200 bookings out of the UK. But we made them back up again by the end of May.”
Smith said prices on Mistral would not be much higher than those on the rest of the fleet this year, even though Festival regards it as a four-star vessel.
Festival has introduced a special offer on Mistral’s Grecian Treasures cruise this summer, allowing a couple who pay the full brochure price of £1,009 for one person to only £399 for the second person. The offer is based a shared cabin.
Agents are being offered a £70 commission credit as an incentive to book a Mistral cruise between July 17 and October 30.
The credit is paid to them once they have also booked a separate winter cruise on Mistral in the Caribbean.
However, Smith denied that the price cuts and commission incentives were being introduced due to low demand, pointing out that capacity had been tight since Festival’s ship Bolero was chartered to First Choice earlier this year.