Ambassador Cruise Line to launch ‘best-in-class’ trade portal

Ambassador Cruise Line has revealed plans to launch a revamped trade portal in September, which its sales leaders promise will be “best in class” in the travel trade.

The new platform will replace the multiple systems used for booking management, cruise search and digital assets, in addition to enabling individual agent recognition where the previous system only allowed for attribution by Abta number.

Other new functions include searching for cruises using the same filters as the consumer-facing website with fewer clicks, for example for solo cabins, and entering promotional codes at the quoting stage, rather than in the final cruise purchase.

The portal will bring together cruise search, booking management, live campaigns, trade incentives, training, downloadable marketing assets, ship visit requests and business support in one “personalised dashboard”, which will also feature agency-specific offers and national campaigns.

Agents who have accounts on the current system will receive an email to send their details for the new system, including for a “master” of the account and other members of their team, so accounts can be created on the new system in the next six weeks.

In future, agency administrators will be able to manage users directly within the platform.

Previous bookings and customer details will also be migrated over in the process.

Nicola Harper, head of distribution, said it has been “a huge investment” taking over a year of development, but was designed to “make everything easier” for agent partners.

Harper said the portal was designed to be “best in class” and “a one-stop shop” for all agent requests, which had taken inspiration from across the travel and retail sectors.

“Our trade partners ask and we deliver,” Harper said. “We believe in investing in our partners as they are the backbone of our success. This is all about making their lives easier.”

Karen Cameron, deputy head of trade, said the intention was to give “the best online service and experience” for agents.

She added: “We looked at travel websites and other industries like online shopping to look at what was the easiest way to use the system and flow through the booking process.”

ROL Cruise has been testing the platform and feeding back improvements, with one consultant describing it as “one of the most user-friendly systems” in the trade.

Billy Rusbridge, senior cruise consultant at the specialist agency, said: “The introduction of Ambassador’s new trade portal has been a breath of fresh air.

“New features such as the ‘Manage Bookings’ feature means it is now effortless to help with new and existing bookings alike.”