P&O Cruises president says agents can entice more new-to-cruise passengers to sail with the line as he confirmed the “vast majority” of bookings still come via the trade.
Paul Ludlow told a Travel Weekly webcast P&O Cruises had put a lot of effort into its agent relationships and had “no desire to do anything differently other than continue to delight our agents”.
He added: “Travel agents are still the vast majority of our distribution and they will help us unlock new-to-cruise guests.”
The line offers agents “real consistency”, said Ludlow, who added: “We’ve got a fleet of ships that are in and out of Southampton year in, year out.
“We don’t really move our ships to other parts of the world so they know that they can build business models with us and have the surety that those business models are going to be in place for years to come.”
The line launched two 5,200-passenger vessels in 2021 and 2022 which have increased the fleet capacity by 40%.
Ludlow said: “I really hope that [expansion] helps agents grow their businesses as they make more money out of selling cruise.”
Ludlow stressed the line had listened to “a lot of feedback from our agents around how they want us to work with them”.
He went on to highlight trade loyalty programme Shine Rewards Club, the ongoing Facebook Live broadcasts for agents and the work the line’s trade sales team did on the road.
“I think the agent landscape has evolved since the pandemic and the way in which we interact with them has had to change,” he explained.
“I’ve just celebrated 21 years with the business and I’ve seen lots of change in the agent distribution space.
“Probably 10 to 15 years ago, there were more independent agents selling cruise holidays but now we’ve seen a lot of consolidation. The industry is more consolidated than it was.”
He hailed travel agents for their innovation, adding: “They offer fantastic customer service, and they’re winning new customers for us.”
Ludlow said he wanted to see more travel agents sell cruise.
“We can help them establish ways of working that are going to be profitable for them selling our brands,” he added.
Addressing agents who don’t sell cruise directly, he said: “If you’re interested in selling cruise come and speak to us because I think we’ve now got some great tips and tricks that we could share with you that will give you a leg up and get into that market space.”
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