Opinion: United cruise industry delivers results

In the fifth and final column to celebrate Clia Cruise Week, Seabourn and Holland America Line UK managing director Lynn Narraway hails the teamwork within the sector

The cruise industry is growing in the UK every year – with more variety of experience, ships and destinations.  There really is a cruise out there for every traveller and every budget and our aim is to attract even more people to taking a cruise

Clia’s PR committee was created with the objective of raising awareness of cruising and attracting more ‘new to cruise’ guests via media and promotions.  Perhaps the most important of these was the creation of Cruise Week in the UK – and the buzz that this week-long event increasingly now makes within the industry and far beyond.

This year we’ve really increased social media opportunities – and I hope that many agents have been engaging with Facebook and tweeting how much they #LoveCruise.

The PR committee is made up representatives from cruise lines, who are all in fierce competition with each other during the normal working day but who meet around a table regularly to collaborate and work together with the unanimous aim of generically growing cruise in the UK.

All member cruise lines also contribute a fee which pays for a professional PR company to relay our messages and work on our industry’s behalf.

As chairman of this committee I am so proud to see competitors working together harmoniously for a common cause.

In fact this year, not only do we have our PR committee but we have created two more groups which meet regularly.  The trade engagement working group is made up of sales professionals from the different cruise lines and their objective is to help our travel partners sell more cruise via trade promotions and messaging.

The consumer engagement working group consists of top marketeers from competing cruise lines who work on projects that include research and “myth busting”.

So we are tapping into the expertise of the whole industry to grow cruising further and help our travel agent partners convert more clients to cruise.

People who know me well are aware that I am partial to a poem or ditty – so this week I’ve kept this in mind, (almost) in the words of John Paul Young…

“Cruise is in the Air, everywhere you look around.”

I hope it has been a productive and profitable Clia Cruise Week.