Carnival UK sales chiefs hail strong start to the year

Carnival UK sales chiefs have reported a “positive start” to the year, with “strong demand” for all-inclusive packages, a lengthening booking curve and tailored incentives.

Representatives from the group’s five sister brands said they were in “a strong forward booked position” for 2027 and 2028, with several highlighting they were ahead of internal targets.

Ruth Venn, P&O Cruises associate vice-president of sales and distribution, said wave sales trends had been “quite value driven”, with the debut of the line’s all-inclusive packages “very positively received”.

She added that onboard credit and low deposit messaging had also “worked really well”, with “key trends” in new-to-brand customers and Norwegian fjord and Caribbean cruise sales.

Venn said. “We have had to think about our messaging and what’s included within our packages and our proposition, and agents have been doing a really good job for us breaking that down.”

Seabourn UK and EMEA sales director Tom Andrews described the wave period as “a crescendo”, with the first two weeks of January “a bit slower” before “gathering pace” to finish February “in a nice position”.

He said: “Looking at our targets by departure year, we’re ahead of pace where we’ve set ourselves our internal targets across all three sailing years [2026, 2027 and 2028].”

Andrews highlighted “great engagement” with a new Asia-focused booking incentive, with more prizes than expected having been awarded.

“We tried a different approach with that booking incentive where we gave away Ninja appliances for new bookings,” he said.

“We had to fork out a lot more than we anticipated, which is a good thing as it means our travel agents are booking Asia [voyages], which is one of three key destinations for the UK market for our ocean product.”

He added there were “still some pockets of availability” for 2026, particularly in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, while there was growth in expedition sales for 2027 departures and the 2028 Cape to Cape World Voyage was “proving popular”.

Karen Farndell, Holland America Line associate vice-president of sales and marketing for the UK and Ireland, similarly saw “momentum building” into February with a lengthening booking curve.

“We are so well-sold for 2026 that we are now seeing bookings for way out in 2027 and 2028,” she said.

Farndell noted there was “an increase in uptake” for all-inclusive packages, alongside a successful trial of offering free car parking at Dover. 

Princess Cruises sales director for the UK and Europe, Yasmin McKechnie, said the line was “on track to deliver on ambitious targets” and had taken on “a big learning from last year” when wave was not as strong, to simplify its offers based on trade feedback.

She said: “We went with fewer limited time offers and that helped things resonate for both the trade and guests.”

McKechnie said fly-cruise sales were “dominating” the wave period, with the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Alaska popular for 2026 and 2027, and Asia for 2027.

Cunard associate vice-president of EMEA sales Iain Baillie said a 5% deposit and 10% off certain sailings had seen “great demand” from new and seasoned customers.

He added there were “encouraging trends” with the average duration of newly booked voyages lengthening from 12 nights last year to 14 nights this year.

“Our full world cruise programme for 2027 is proving really popular, specifically on Queen Victoria on January 10,” he said.

“I am pleased to say we are nearly sold out of all of our Grill Suites for that, and our Grill Suites across the programme are seeing extremely high demand.”