NEWS SPECIAL REPORT Celebrity showcases Flora to agents


Celebrity Cruises invites 10 UK agents to see Celebrity Flora, the first cruise vessel purpose-built for the Galapagos. Harry Kemble reports from the Netherlands


Celebrity Cruises is urging agents to contact its trade trainers to arrange in-store seminars to boost their sales of expedition cruises and knowledge of the Galapagos.


The line is preparing to welcome


new vessel Celebrity Flora into the fleet in une. The allsuite vessel, which will carry  passengers, will sail yearround from altra


sland in the alapagos slands, offering sevennight itineraries around the archipelago. rices lead in at around ,. Ruth ardiner, elebritys


strategic account manager, said the lines agent trainers, eon Hand and mma Rigby, could help the trade to sell the niche product. Speaking at a shipyard visit to


see Flora in Amsterdam, ardiner said: “pedition is at the forefront of peoples minds in cruise and therefore the time for investment in epedition is right now.” nline travel agent ruise.co.uk


has this year held three epedition focused events at which elebritys trainers have given presentations. elmar World in north Wales


bagged two Flora bookings worth , after welcoming Hand to speak at an event last month. elmar World agent Howard


avies, one of   agents on the shipyard visit, said: “Flora is an easy upsell in a limited market. To visit the alapagos slands on


Flora is money well spent.” ardiner said: “very agent


has a alapagos client. The more agents are aware, the more customers are aware.” elebrity entral, the lines


agent portal, has training modules focused on Flora and the alapagos. ardiner said four oneminute


videos showcasing elebritys epedition product would be made available to share on social media. nly “a couple” of  agents will


be invited to the naming ceremony in the alapagos in une because of capacity limitations, ardiner added.


Flora in numbers


100 passenger capacity 6 Novurania tender boats 12 knots cruise speed 50 cubic metres of water produced by drinking filtration systems


270 sq ft of solar panels Ecuadorian eco champion is ship’s godmother


Celebrity Cruises has named a former president of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as the godmother of Celebrity Flora. Yolanda Kakabadse (pictured), a former Ecuadorian minister of environment, will be at the ship’s naming ceremony in Ecuador in June. Kakabadse was president of the WWF for seven years from 2010. Lutoff-Perlo said: “She has fought for the preservation and ecosystem of Galapagos and Ecuador her entire life. We care equally as much as she does about preserving it.”


Lutoff-Perlo hints at plans to expand Galapagos capacity


Celebrity Cruises has not ruled out seeking to raise capacity in the Galapagos Islands once Celebrity Flora has launched. The 100-berth vessel will sail in the protected region from the end of June. The line currently operates


three vessels in the Galapagos: small ships Xperience and Xploration, which are to be retired this month, and 100-passenger Xpedition. Cruise capacity in the


archipelago is tightly controlled. Celebrity has a licence to carry 164 passengers across its ships at any one time. Cruise lines can buy licensed capacity from other operators in the Galapagos but this can be hard to come by. Outlining Celebrity’s


plans for the region, chief executive and president Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said: “Right now, we are not expanding in the Galapagos. Will I say that we will never have a plan for that? No, I won’t. We are going to get [Flora] launched and then we will see what we would like to do next.”


Take a video tour of Celebrity Flora


Watch Celebrity Cruises’ Jo Rzymowska give Travel Weekly a tour of Celebrity Flora at the De Hoop shipyard in the Netherlands: facebook.com/travelweeklyuk


12travelweekly.co.uk2 May 2019


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