The Advantage Travel Partnership has posted year-to-date cruise revenue growth of 16%, representing its strongest-ever year for the sector.
Jonny Peat, senior cruise manager for The Advantage Travel Partnership, revealed the figures during Advantage’s Latitude cruise conference, taking place on board Ambassador’s Ambience this weekend.
Peat said: “At our Latitude conference 12 months ago we set ourselves some ambitious targets to reach and put in place a roadmap to grow our cruise community through Latitude.
“One year on, we have achieved everything we set for ourselves and more. Cruise continues to play a massive role in our commercial strategy and across our business, generating over £0.65bn of revenue annually and growing.”
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Advantage also reported its cruise average selling price was up 6% compared to last year. Kelly Cookes, chief commercial officer, attributed this in part to efforts in supporting selling up the ship as much as possible.
Within the 16% growth, river and expedition cruising showed the biggest revenue increases, up 110% and 77% respectively.
Ocean and luxury were up 12% and 30% in the same timeframe.
The overall cruise growth was ahead of the rest of the business and beat overall land-based revenue by 1%.
Peat highlighted that there was a 20% uplift in sales year on year during cruise month in September, which saw attendance of webinars up by 94% year on year.
He added that Latitude members had also increased by 52% during the year to 450 members, with 50 new branches.
Last year the consortium pledged to reach 600 Latitude members by the end of 2024.
These members had also reported a rise in bookings from new customers from a younger demographic seeking out less common destinations like Antarctica, Galapagos and Colombia, with luxury cruise sales particularly popular.
The number of ship visits had more than doubled to 450 compared to the previous year with 180% growth.
Advantage Latitude’s virtual member briefings, which were introduced last year for turn of the year and cruise campaigns, have been “highly successful”.
Peat said Advantage would bring “a more tailored approach” for members who are beginning in cruise and those “going to the next level” along with a bigger slate of events in 2025.
There will be in-person and online training events with sessions with suppliers split into beginner, intermediate and expert, and by specific sector like river, expedition and luxury.
Its Frontliner Training events are expected to take place in Glasgow, Belfast, London and Manchester throughout, with more details to come early next year.
He said: “Our community has a huge appetite for learning, and the next natural progression is for us to focus even further on delivering more events on cruise, and the sub-sectors within.
“Above all Latitude has always been about being inclusive and welcoming any member into our community, regardless of the level of experience within the sector. This approach has been core to our success and will remain front and centre of our proposition as we move forward.”
Advantage’s Latitude conference is being attended by 170 attendees, 120 or whom are agents, who are on board alongside 1,400 passengers on the sailing from London Tilbury to Amsterdam.