Viking to host 400 agents on ships


Harry Kemble harry.kemble@travelweekly.co.uk


Viking is to double the number of agent visits to its ships in 2019 as it revamps its Made For Trade website.


Head of trade sales Neil Barclay


plans to increase agent ship visits to help educate the trade about Viking’s ocean product. This year, about 200 agents


will see four Viking vessels, in London, Liverpool, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falmouth. Next year, Viking plans to host a minimum of 20 ship visits and invite 20 agents to each. Barclay said: “We are aiming


Ocean cruise ship Viking Sea


would be more “agent-friendly”. Eight modules for both river and ocean will remain, but they will be tweaked to focus on how agents sell both products, he added. “We need to change the way


Made For Trade works,” he said. “The update is about making it


more agent-friendly and usable. “A lot of travel agents are very


for about 400 agents because one of the challenges that we have is making sure agents know how we are different.” To help build awareness about Viking’s ocean cruise division, which launched three years ago, Barclay is also revamping the line’s


Made For Trade agent website. Agents can download brochures and marketing material, enter competitions and learn about the line’s ocean and river cruises. Barclay said revamped training


programmes would be in place by mid-September and pledged these


comfortable selling our river cruises and automatically sell ocean cruises, but the changes to Made For Trade are really to educate them about where Viking sits in the market. “We never sell ourselves as


luxury, but we are in the four-star-


plus premium market.” myvikingjourney.com/agent


18 travelweekly.co.uk 2 August 2018


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