Celestyal Cruises is “actively looking at options” to buy “newer” ships as it expands its UK on-the-road sales team.
The Greek line currently operates two ships – Celestyal Crystal and Celestyal Olympia – in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Chief commercial officer Leslie Peden confirmed the line was looking to expand its fleet after equity firm Searchlight Capital Partners acquired a majority share in the line last year.
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He said: “We’re getting to a phase where we’re revisiting newer hardware. We’re actively looking at options and that will lead on to us getting to that point where we’re cruising year-round.”
Peden added there was “significant pent-up demand” for winter cruises from passengers who were “interested” in the religions of Greece and Turkey.
“The model of the business has been Greek centric, and the Greek season is typically known for the summer,” he explained.
“It’s about building that awareness amongst the trade and the customers that Greece is a 365-day destination. There’s significant pent-up demand for the winter. Not everyone wants to travel in the height of the summer.”
The line is currently hiring for a business development manager to cover the north of England and Scotland. The appointment will increase the UK-based sales team to three people.
Peden said the successful applicant would be based in the Midlands or the Greater Manchester area.
“There are a lot of valuable trade partners in the north and Scotland,” added Peden, who revealed around 10% of the line’s sales comes from the UK market.
Reflecting on UK trade distribution, Peden confirmed the line was working with more UK agents than ever before and added that 95% of Celestyal’s trade bookings were made by new-to-cruise passengers.
“We’re growing agents’ businesses because we’re bringing in new customers for them,” he said. “The UK market coming into 2019 had increased to about 4,500 passengers. We were on track to exceed this in 2020 before Covid hit.”
On the line’s wave campaign, which launched in early December, Peden said sales had “gained momentum”.
The line is offering savings of up to 30% off selected 2022 sailings until March 31 as part of its Escape Back To The Blue campaign.
“January was slow given the uncertainty with the [Omicron] variant that came in over the Christmas period,” he added. “It was only the second week of February where we saw an uptick in performance.
“It has been strong and building ever since. What has been surprising, given what has been happening in Ukraine, is our business pace has remained strong.”
He highlighted how last week was the strongest sales week of the wave so far. However, Peden said there were no plans to extend the line’s current wave offer beyond the end of the month.
Cookbook author Diane Kochilas will create a speciality restaurant called My Greek Table which will be on both Celesytal ships, offering traditional “home-style Greek dishes”.