From left: Christian Boell, Norwegian; James Coughlan, Flexicruise; Nick Wilkinson, Norwegian; and Phil Evans, Cruise Nation
AGENTS’ VIEWS OF ESCAPE
Norwegian hosted 600 agents and 2,500 of their customers on Escape in Southampton:
Peter
Healey (left), Vertical Group;
Susan Forsdike, The Cruise Village; and Dennis Gardner, Vertical Group
‘Investing in UK trade can fuel double-digit growth’
Agents will be key to “keeping the momentum” going for Norwegian Cruise Line following a record year for sales in the UK.
Francis Riley reported
“record-breaking, double-digit sales growth” in the UK this year, compared with 2014. He attributed this to “good promotions and training and educating the trade”. Norwegian has hosted more than 1,200 agents on ship visits since September, as well as holding more webinars and seminars. The UK is the US line’s second- biggest market but Norwegian declined to reveal how many Britons it carries each year. “We have been smart and
thoughtful about the way we put out our promotions,” Riley said. “We’ve not been chasing the
last-minute customer. “We’ve also made a specific
effort to train travel agents more on our product this year than ever before through a multitude of webinars and seminars. The whole year has been about educating the trade using different approaches. “This year we had two million
“We will be investing more
“This year has been about educating the trade using different approaches”
passengers but our growth plans will mean we have 2.8 million by 2019, with three ships on order.” Riley said investing in the trade had helped Norwegian achieve growth and he pledged to invest more in joint marketing funds.
marketing money in the UK to tell that story. We will also have new promotions and will continue to work closely with the trade. The spend will be a combination of consumer and trade marketing.” Christian Boell, managing director
for Europe, said fam trips would be held on the newly revamped Norwegian Epic and that these would help boost UK sales next year, which he believes can again see double-digit growth in 2016.
Group’s systems ‘unlikely to be unified’
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has no plans to integrate the booking systems for its three brands. Currently, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises share a booking portal, and Norwegian operates its own. A number of agents on the sailing said they believed Norwegian’s
system was the stronger of the two and questioned whether the group might bring the the three brands together under one system. Harry Sommer, executive vice-president of international business
development, said: “The reservations system is complicated because it touches so many different aspects of what we do internally. I don’t think you will see us combining the systems any time soon.”
Sarah Vince, Baldwins Travel “It’s always great to see a new ship first- hand and on this particular
launch it was exciting to host some of our guests too. We had eight guests on board the ship and showing them around was a great opportunity.”
Phil Evans, Cruise Nation “There are some stand- out venues which will be very popular.
District Brew House is great; it’s lots of fun and the atmosphere has been electric. The range of entertainment on Norwegian ships is always amazing, and Escape is no different. There’s music and entertainment to cover all decades. This ship will do well with families and couples. The decor definitely has more of a premium feel to it.”
John Cooper, Vision Cruise “We’ve had 300 people on board and have hosted them at three cocktail
parties. It’s great to be able to meet with our guests who haven’t sailed with Norwegian previously and showcase the newest ship in the world to them. We’d made two bookings within a couple of hours of being on the ship. I love O’Sheehans, H2O and Spice; they’re all great venues.”
5 November 2015
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