p22 cruise ukcc jan30 27/1/09 17:28 Page 22
news convention preview
ttglive.com
UK Cruise Convention 2009
June 17-19, 2009 ■ Dover
In the latest preview of Ace’s cruise convention,
Register NOW
Lee Hayhurst focuses on the river cruise sector
Register for the UK Cruise Convention
Half of the 450 delegate places have already
Deilmann ‘on track’
been snapped up before February, the busy
booking period, so don’t miss out – sign up
today. Go to ukcruiseconvention.org
RIVER CRUISE specialist Peter Deilmann is on
track to meet ambitious growth targets in the UK
this year, according to its new head of sales Claire
Go Cruise’s Hill
Hancer.
The German-owned line has just become the says sales ‘swell’
16th member of marketing consortium Tipto.
Hancer said this was just one of a number of GO CRUISE franchisee James Hill, who marked
plans in the pipeline to improve the way the line three years in the river cruise sector last week,
works with agents this year. It also intends to says he has never been busier.
work with other upmarket brands. Running a business, by himself, that is turning
“Despite the economic slowdown, 2009 is over £750,000 a year, means he has even been
shaping up to be quite a good year,” said Hancer, able to take the decision not to sell Nile cruises,
who has been in the job just six weeks. the sector’s biggest destination.
“Bookings are already well ahead of this time Hill said he first decided to concentrate on river
last year so we are quite positive.” Tipto’s Graham Balmforth with Deilmann’s Claire Hancer cruise at a Go Cruise conference after none of the
As part of her remit to strengthen trade delegates showed an interest in river cruise.
relations Hancer said she hoped to establish Horticultural Society to promote how its cruises “A little light went on in my mind,” he said.
an incentives programme for Deilmann’s most cater for specialist interests. “If no one else wanted
productive agents. “We are relatively small, as are some of the to do it maybe there was
Training that focuses purely on the geography other operators, so if we can focus ourselves as an opportunity.”
of European rivers is also being devised, and will a niche market together that would work quite Hill approached Brian
be delivered to agents in shops and call centres. well,” Hancer said. White who runs Choosing
Hancer also wants the line to work more col- Deilmann joins cruise operators Fred Olsen Cruising, and White
laboratively with fellow niche upmarket brands Cruise Lines and Hurtigruten in Tipto, which started to supply him
such as Hebridean International Cruises and Star celebrates its 10th birthday this year. with sales leads.
Clipper due to the potential crossover in clients. Tipto chairman Graham Balmforth said: ‘We Hill admitted he was a
She also sees value in the line working with UK are delighted to give our membership a boost novice when he started
organisations such as the National Trust or Royal with such a prestigious name as Peter Deilmann.” and made many mistakes.
“The first thing I did was get a map of the
Rhine out. It took six months of getting it wrong
Sessions to focus
before I felt comfortable, but I needed the
enquiries to get it wrong,” he said.
on river cruising
Although the river cruise market has seen
some big players enter the market in the past 12
months, such as cruise.co.uk and 1st4cruising,
THERE WILL be a two-part river cruise session on The Rhine is the second-most popular river for cruising Hill said he was not concerned.
the first day of the UK Cruise Convention. He said river cruise was not a “stack it high,
Section one will look at what different rivers Ace business development director Andy sell it cheap” product but one which attracted
have to offer; Section two will offer practical Harmer said: “Consider how many people go on customers who expected specialist knowledge.
advice on how to start selling river cruises. holiday to Europe on city breaks or rail or coach “Very seldom do I lose a sale to a competitor.
The event’s Discovery Zone will focus on river tours. Even if you convert just 10% of those to I either lose out to an operator direct or a client
information, with a focus on the Rhine, the river cruises, that’s significant in a sector that who decides not to travel. River cruise is ideal for
second-most popular cruise river behind the Nile. has just 120,000 UK customers annually.” small independents,” said Hill.
22 30.01.2009
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