EDITOR’S COMMENTS


NEWS Hot Stories L CRUISE


04 – Agents’ clients get on board Getaway; January sales soar; Hays reopens two Bath shops; Abta fights PTD cooling-off plans; Spear Travels targets 15 shops within five years


News Digest L CRUISE


08 – Cook and Brand USA start campaign; protests threaten Bangkok shutdown; ‘trade fails to expoit spa sector’; Travel Uni joins forces with MyBookingRewards.com


Conference Reports


11 – GoCruise, Ipswich 14 – Aito Agents, Drayton Manor


Agent Achievement Awards 16 – Event confirmed for April 30


NEWS YOU CAN USE


Product News 19 – Win with Holland America Line


Operator News


21– USAirtours doubles Florida villas 22 – Planet adds luxury properties 24 – Luggage Mule opens to trade


Cruise News L CRUISE


27 – Brittany Ferries runs incentive 28 – Crystal offers free flights 30 – Fred Olsen starts Bristol sailings


Hotels News 32 – Bedbank refocuses on luxury


88 – Vacancies and business services TRAVELWEEKLY BUSINESS


L News CRUISE


95 – Medhotels appeal: Comment 96 – Prospects swell for cruise sector


Cover photo: Admiring Norwegian Getaway are, from left: Nick Wilkinson, Norwegian Cruise Line; Geoffrey Silvers, Viva Voyage; Lynne Hammond, Marion Owen Travel; and Francis Riley, Norwegian Cruise Line


ALL ABOUT YOU


Letters 34 – Monarch, Turkey, ITE, ski ban


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Comment 36 – ‘Tap into cruise’: Peter Shanks


CRUISE L


Readers’ Lives 44 – Daniel Radnor, LookitBookit.com


CRUISE L


Mystery Shopper 46 – Online cruise specialists tested


CRUISE


All For You 48 – Virgin trip, Macau holiday, £60


DESTINATIONS L Cruise CRUISE


53 – Launches and events in 2014 59 – Fun at sea for kids of all ages 66 – Fit for a Royal Princess 71 – MSC’s Yacht Club overview 74 – Norwegian Breakaway review


Europe


77 – Midnight sun v northern lights 82 – Up Pompeii to erupt your sales JOBS AND CLASSIFIED


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s I write this, I have half an eye on my preparations for an upcoming interview on stage with the chief


executive of Norwegian Cruise Line, Kevin Sheehan. The interview forms part of the celebrations for the cruise line’s new ship Norwegian Getaway in Southampton this week. And it is fitting that in the week when we publish our annual special edition devoted to cruise, hundreds of travel agents and their customers will be on board the latest ship to join the industry’s global fleet.


There’s no doubt that cruising has had a tough couple of


years with multiple changes and challenges and the Costa Concordia tragedy at the start of 2012 casting a pall over the cruise industry. But as we head into 2014, there seems to be a definite spring in the sector’s step. As you receive this edition of Travel Weekly, the industry’s biggest operators will be gathering in London to find out who you have voted as the winners of this year’s Travel Weekly Globe Travel Awards. And it is telling that three cruise lines – Norwegian, Celebrity Cruises and P&O Cruises – are among those that will be using the event to shout from the rooftops about the exciting launches and product we can expect in the year ahead. The Globes is always a special night, and if the rest of the industry has a similar outlook to the cruise sector, then it could well be one of the biggest celebrations for many years. My heartfelt congratulations to all the victors. Make sure you find out who the big winners are by logging on to travelweekly.co.uk on Friday morning.


lucy.huxley@travelweekly.co.uk WHAT LUCY DID THISWEEK 1


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Travelled to Southampton to interview Norwegian Cruise Line chief executive Kevin Sheehan on stage in front of customers and agents on board Getaway


Was staggered to learn from Spafinder boss John Bevan that the wellness tourism industry globally is worth an estimated $438 billion


Was very proud to watch my son ‘swim up the river’ from Beaver Scouts to Cubs


16 January 2014 — travelweekly.co.uk • 3


Cruise industry is looking shipshape


LUCY Editor-in-chief HUXLEY


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CONTENTS Inside your number-one industry mag!


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