Celebrity Cruises is preparing to launch its largest-ever trade survey as it looks to understand what agents want in a post-pandemic world.
A review into how the line manages travel partner accounts began this month, but Claire Stirrup, UK and Ireland director of sales, confirmed on Celebrity Beyond’s maiden voyage a wide-ranging agent-focused study will also be carried out.
She said: “We’re about to embark on a trade survey that will go out to all the trade partners that we work with and [ask] how we can help them in the coming weeks and months.
“We are always looking at our trade partners and feedback is always important to us.”
Stirrup (pictured) said a series of agent engagement panels would also be held, adding: “We want to understand what [agents] want in the world that we know.”
Homeworkers, she said, had “always been a priority for us”. Explaining why the line was carrying such a survey, she said: “We’ve now got people working from home because of what has happened who have different needs from people that have always been a homeworker.”
She said “new ways of working” would be announced in autumn.
Stirrup added: “We’re going to ask [agents] different questions about lots of different topics about how Celebrity Cruises can support them.
“There are a lot of things that we do right, and we will build on those as we go on.”
The line is trying to replace the outgoing Jonny Peat, who is leaving to join Advantage Travel Partnership, and Ruth Gardiner, who switched to sister line Royal Caribbean International earlier this year.
Stirrup confirmed Celebrity was still working through applications and would be announcing “a new structure” and new team members “in the next few weeks”.
Lucy Huxley speaks to the line’s UK boss Jo Rzymowska at a trade showcase onboard new ship Celebrity Beyond