NEWS — SPECIAL REPORT


As the cruise agency celebrates its 20th anniversary, chief executive Jeremy Dickinson ascribes its success to being more than just a distributor. By HOLLIE-RAE MERRICK


When it comes to building a successful cruise agency, maintaining high standards and sticking to your guns is essential, according to Reader Offers’ Jeremy Dickinson. But as the company celebrates its 20th anniversary, the agency’s chief executive says it’s important not to get complacent. Despite sitting at the helm of an


established cruise specialist, which now employs more than 100 people, Dickinson believes it’s vital to always strive for more. “We’ve built great momentum but, in my mind, you’ve never ‘made it’, because you can always do better,” he said. “Nobody in this business gets complacent.” Dickinson puts his success


down to the loyalty and trust his company has built up with cruise lines and customers. He prefers to be seen as a


“strategic partner” to cruise lines, rather than “just a distributor”. He said the reason for Reader


Offers’ success was because it does not focus solely on volumes. “It’s not about the volume we


do for cruise lines, it’s about how we represent them and market their product to differentiate between the brands,” said Dickinson. “The value isn’t in the number of passengers we do for them, although that’s part of it. Marketing to the right people and getting the right passengers on


10 • travelweekly.co.uk — 16 April 2015


the right ship is most important.” Reader Offers’ routes to market include advertising in national newspapers, and TV campaigns starring Jennie Bond. Dickinson believes both help attract new-to- cruise customers and mean the agency isn’t simply “regurgitating the same old database”.


Testing times But the past 20 years haven’t been without testing times. The agency moved to its new offices in Lexden, Colchester, just before the worst economic crisis took hold. The company was then forced to change strategy when the Complete Cruise Solution (CCS) brands cut commission to 5% in 2011, at a time when Reader Offers was the largest seller of Cunard cruises in the world. The agency took to forging stronger ties with alternative


Jeremy Dickinson and staff are joined by Holland America Line’s Wendy Lahmich (centre) at ReaderOffers’ 20th anniversary party


operators and instead focused on long-term partnerships. The CCS saga also meant the agency began creating tailor-made cruise packages, which now account for 25% of the business. Fast-forward four years and the agency is selling CCS brands, thanks to improved commercial terms. Dickinson said: “We deal with all the cruise lines on a long-term basis and we stick to our principles. An example of that is when we stopped marketing CCS when commissions were cut. We always wanted to work with CCS, but it didn’t make commercial sense for us at that time, so we had to stand by our principles.”


Price-conscious Dickinson, who believes a cruise should “never be oversold or undersold”, said the industry still needed to improve its pricing.


Reader Offers: The first 20 years


1995 Sets up in March 2003 Launches website 2006 Wins its first award: Cunard’s top UK independent agent


2009 Appoints Jeremy Dickinson as managing director designate


2009 Publishes its first Telegraph supplement


2010 Launches loyalty scheme Cruise Miles for customers


Jeremy Dickinson (centre),


with Peter Beadles (left), who retired from Reader Offers in 2014, and Nigel Lingard, non-executive director


2014 Appoints Dickinson as chief executive To attract the new-to-cruise


market, he believes the industry “needs to sell the concept of cruising”, rather than pushing out “loads of deals in the form of a Chinese takeaway menu”. “Cruise is undersold in lots of


areas,” he said. “From an industry point of view, not enough focus is put on selling the cruises earlier. That’s where we’re different because we rarely sell discounted and late business for cruise lines. We focus more on selling the business early, based on getting the best cabin at a good price. “The industry needs to promote


the product earlier, then prices might get stronger. Some agents won’t promote a cruise unless it’s at the last minute or really cheap, but lines are trying to modify this. Some channels are too fixed on being the cheapest, rather than selling the concept of cruising.”


Growth opportunities Reader Offers plans to expand its newly launched river cruise product, Rivers of Asia. “We have a strong five-year plan,” said Dickinson. “The market, the economy and cruise capacity are in a position now where there are so many opportunities, but you have to get the marketing right. River cruising is a great opportunity, but it will only be incremental – not instead of ocean cruise.”


SPECIAL REPORT


Reader Offers marks 20 years


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