GoCruise & Travel took its top 10 best cruise sellers and their partners on a P&O Cruises sailing to reward them for their achievements in 2021.
The all-expenses-paid VIP trip was on a three-night sailing on Arcadia from Southampton to Rotterdam earlier this month.
The franchisees were joined by P&O Cruises’ Cara Hayward, partnership development manager, and Sophie Stannett, strategic partnerships executive, as well as six members of the GoCruise & Travel head office team.
The event included a business session with an update about the company and the chance for franchisees to share ideas about boosting sales – and a gala dinner on the final night.
P&O Cruises held a presentation about its new ship Arvia, which is due to launch in December.
The The Top Achievers’ Cruise is usually an annual event but this was the first one since 2019 because of the pandemic.
Franchisee Maxine Smile reached the top 10 despite starting her business in 2019 with no travel experience.
She said: “After vowing to become a top 10 franchisee after my first conference in 2019…two years later, after Covid-19, sheer determination, copious amounts of gin at the end of each day, voila, there I was – the joy of becoming one of the ‘elite’ was overwhelming.
“The Top Achievers’ Cruise was the icing on the cake. I experienced the most wonderful welcome into the club, not least by all the professional, knowledgeable and seasoned franchisees, some of whom have been members for over a decade, but also by the hard-working, supportive HQ gang.
“I came away from this experience with the feeling of family again – one of the initial elements of choosing to buy a franchise with GoCruise & Travel.
“It was such a joy to socialise with the other top achievers and to get to know them on a personal level, while also talking shop now and again.
“We were spoilt rotten and treated as superstars. It gave me a renewed passion for wanting to always be in this ‘club’.”
Samantha Bruton, head of franchise, thanked Hayward and Stannett for arranging the trip and making the franchisees feel “extra special and valued”.
“The value of bringing the best in the business together and bouncing ideas and things that have worked for them was something we have not managed to do for a long time,” she said.
“Our time spent onboard was fantastic, watching the relationships build between franchisees and P&O Cruises.
“We experienced fantastic business meetings, increasing our knowledge on the P&O Cruises product, plus great relationship building, silent discos, karaoke and late nights in the night club.”