Increased marketing activity is planned by the Advantage Travel Partnership to help its agent members sell cruises during a peak promotional period.
The ‘Around the World on Waterways’ campaign was unveiled via a virtual briefing with agents to showcase the activity the consortium is promoting throughout September.
Members were updated on marketing plans and briefed on current trends by cruise trade body Clia ahead of Cruise Week starting on September 18, together with representatives from Marella Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and MSC Cruises.
They were also given details about an exclusive AmaWaterways fam trip in November, exclusively open to Advantage members.
Advantage is to trial a new ‘On the road with Celebrity Cruises’ initiative this month. Advantage and Celebrity representatives will visit members across the country to showcase the brand to new-to-cruise customers.
The partnership will also be distributing the twice-yearly print edition of its cruise focused consumer magazine, Navigate, which usually appears in digital format.
Details of dedicated offers content will be shared with members’ customers throughout the month. All content is designed for members to use in their own cruise marketing, giving them access to quality content to engage and inspire new and existing customers, according to Advantage.
The group’s intranet hub will house content available for members to access, including digital assets, banners and cruise videos, with point of sale available to agencies from today (Thursday).
The cruise sales push comes ahead of the consortium hosting its annual cruise conference for members of its Latitude cruise-focused community on November 18-20 on Uniworld river cruise ship Joie de Vivre.
Advantage chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes said: “Cruise is of significant importance to us as a business and accounts for over a third of our leisure turnover.
“Across the partnership we are placing more emphasis on the cruise sector than ever and plan to grow our share even further.
“The market is booming and we want to make sure all of our members are capitalising on the sales opportunities whilst supporting them on their growth journey.”
Jonny Peat, cruise commercial manager, added: “Cruise month gives us a great opportunity to really focus on the sector and with the amazing support we get from our cruise partners, and we believe it’s going to drive a significant growth for members.
“Not only will members get great support to help them capitalise on cruise month, but we will also be giving them the opportunity to win amazing prizes including Amazon vouchers and goody bags from cruise partners, through a gamification initiative called ‘Anchors Aweigh’.