Hays Travel agents have been challenged to increase cruise sales from 23.6% to 26% by May next year and 30% thereafter.
Catriona Parsons, Hays Travel head of cruise commercial, said Hays’ “cruise business is going to get bigger and bigger”, adding sales had risen from 16% in 2019 to 23.6% this year.
She told agents at the Hays Travel annual conference in Bodrum, Turkey that the ultimate goal was to increase cruise business to 30%.
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“We’re doing well and that is down to you, but I think we’re just beginning,” she said. “Every single region in the country has smashed their target for cruise between May 1 and October 31.
“The [Hays Travel] board has set a challenge. They want us to achieve 26% by the end of the financial year. I need your help. We need to come together.”
She went on to say “our goal is 30% – we will achieve 30% of our business is cruise”.
Parsons challenged every agent in the room to book a luxury cruise and a river sailing between January and May 2023 to help achieve the target.
Every Hays Travel agent who succeeds will be entered into a prize draw to win either a luxury voyage or a river cruise for two.
Around 37% of cruise bookings are for sailings lasting 14 nights or longer and the average cruise selling price had risen by £150 since May, added Parsons, who noted how bookings for MSC Cruises and Royal Caribbean International had “gone up” this year.
Both lines sit in the agency’s top five ocean cruise brands along with P&O Cruises, Marella Cruises and Princess Cruises.
“There’s growth in the market with new ships and new innovations and there’s a cruise for absolutely everyone,” she said.
Parsons pledged to negotiate “the correct” commission levels with cruise lines.
“Let me tell you that we’re not going to stop until you have the correct commissions,” she said.
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